Ministry of Civil Affairs launches winter assistance program for homeless and displaced individuals

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has launched an assistance program to aid displaced and homeless people to help them get through the coming cold winter. 

The program has been activated since mid-October and will conclude on March 15, and the time can be extended in places with longer winters or colder temperatures, such as provinces in the nation's northeastern part, based on local conditions. It's the 14th year the ministry has implemented such a warmth-sending program.

Under the program, local authorities are urged to patrol areas including railway stations, underground passageways and abandoned buildings that displaced or homeless people may use as temporary shelters, especially during nights or before extreme weather. 

Local authorities can encourage sanitation workers, delivery workers, bus or taxi drivers and social workers to give reports of spotting displaced or homeless people, and the authorities can set up temporary shelters to aid such people. 

Also, local authorities should provide food, clothes and warmth-keeping supplies to homeless people who refuse to be transferred to relief agencies. For minors and people with disabilities, the local authorities should provide prompt care and assistance and transfer the homeless in critical condition or with mental disorders to hospitals as soon as possible.

The assistance is also available to people in difficulties due to suffering from domestic violence or unemployment, according to the ministry, as well as services including psychological and legal assistance and consulting. 

Relief agencies will be further regulated as to their abilities to offer assistance and responses to emergencies.