Sheltering the Homeless

Responding to public demands to house the homeless suffering due to the cold and inclement weather in Tehran, the Tehran Municipality and the State Welfare Organization have provided shelter to a number of dispossessed people in “warm homes” across the capital city. The public began urging urban authorities to take action after a series of photographs showing homeless people sheltering from the winter cold in empty graves outside Tehran were published in Shahrvand newspaper on Tuesday, prompting response from the officials. The dramatic pictures were quickly circulated on social media and drew bitter reactions from the people as well as celebrities, who expressed deep alarm over the plight of the homeless. Mosques were also urged to open their doors to the homeless on humanitarian grounds. Meanwhile, the governor of Tehran Province, Hossein Hashemi, said the graveyard dwellers were drug addicts, and had been transferred to the TM’s homeless shelters or rehab camps in the province, Mehr News Agency reported.