Since OSA is not dependent on Hungarian state funding, and therefore functions in a more secure environment than other institutions, with the arrival of winter every year, we try to get help to the homeless. Having collected thousands of sleeping bags from foreign armies and held auctions, this year we want to collect not money, but realistic, long-term, humane solutions. Rather than raise insufficient funds, we feel we must take action, at a time when the government views poor and homeless people as criminals, and regards banishing the homeless from public view as its most important task.
A study commissioned by OSA from the Budget Responsibility Institute shows that the government is planning to spend many times more on building football stadiums than on providing for the homeless in the years to come. We have thus decided to hold a conference to ask: how is it possible to build football stadiums on taxpayers’ money, and how can we find solutions to the unjust and adverse circumstances in which Budapest’s homeless live? We are looking for realistic plans, drawing on the national and international experience of expert speakers, on how money earmarked for stadiums could best be put to use to solve the long-term problems of the homeless. Speakers at the conference will be invited to calculate only with the amount of public funds intended for stadiums. We want realistic and serious solutions, for professional arguments and humanistic deliberations to change the government’s determination: surrounded by cold and inhumane measures, all we can do is to seek the solution.
We are organizing a conference for December 18, and invite contributions from those affected, those who understand the problems, and professionals who can help. In the hope of dialog, we will also invite representatives of the government and the city of Budapest to the conference.
Please note that the conference will take place in Hungarian.
OSA Archivum / Galeria Centralis - 1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.
Wed, 12/18/2013 (All day)
http://www.osaarchivum.org/events/Stadiont-vagy-fedelet-Stadium-or-Shelter