Public policies for assisting the homeless population:

reflections on the realization of rights in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes one of the most extreme expressions of the social issue in contemporary times: the relation between public policy and the person living on the streets. Constituted by people who live in extreme social precariousness, facing violations of their dignity, historically excluded and invisibilized, the homeless population experienced a change of course when Brazilian Decree No. 7,053 (2009) laid the foundations for a public policy of its own, which guarantee its fundamental rights. The guiding question of this study was: “How does the access and effectiveness of the Brazilian National Policy for the Homeless Population take place?” A product of bibliographic research and empirical observation, described in the reports and in the follow-up to the discussions of the Fortaleza Street Forum, this article presents an overview of the national policy concerned and the legal norms that configure it, based on reflection on the limits and possibilities of public policy in Brazil as instruments for legitimizing social rights and consolidating the homeless population’s citizenship in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.