Court Rules Closure of American's Shelter for Homeless Mothers

Court rules closure of Americans' shelter for homeless mothers

Over 40 homeless young women risk being put on the streets after a court ruling to dissolve the American foundation sheltering them.

In its feature on May 20, Bucharest Daily News wrote about the Inasmuch Foundation ran by Sue and Ron Bates in the villages of Bolintin, Giurgiu County, and Ciorogarla, Ilfov County. The charity foundation created in February 1999 was sheltering homeless women, most of who had been sleeping in parks and sewers for years. Money for all the foundation's activities was supplied by churches in the West and by U.S. families. Because some of the women sheltered by the Bates family gave birth to children, the foundation decided to buy and arrange two homes where mothers could live and take care of their babies.

In all, the Bates' bought and improved three houses in the counties of Ilfov and Giurgiu, where dozens of women from the streets found shelter and food, and a place where they could raise their children. Social workers in the Inasmuch foundation also supported them with birth control information. But Ilfov County child protection service decided the houses were not built to European standards, and, unless they were improved, they had to be closed. Another issue invoked by authorities was that Inasmuch had no right to function as a maternal care foundation. The case was taken to court and a first decision ruled in favor of the foundation. However, at the beginning of this week, a Bucharest Court Panel, answering Ilfov County's appeal decided the foundation is to be dissolved because, according to the law, it was not authorized to shelter infants and to carry out child protection activities.

Since first confronted with the danger of being closed down, the people at Inasmuch have been making efforts to improve their standards, with help from abroad.

"They last visited our homes last year in September, and since then we tried to do our best. We added thermopane to the windows, we rebuilt some parts, we even put in a bathroom for the cook," says Nelu Nica, the foundation's administrator, "but nobody came back to see the changes we made."

Also according to the foundation's administrator, an appeal based on the first court's decision was not a solution in Romanian law. Consequently, the only logical conclusion is closing the three homes. The most serious outcome could mean that even the house in Bolintin, the one sheltering grown up women will have to be closed down, and accordingly, 42 homeless people will be put on the street unless Romanian social services can find another solution.

"The foundation has been functioning outside the law for quite a while," Florin Constantin Gate, chief of the juridical service in Ilfov Child Protection Service, explained.

"I know there is also a house in Bolintin, which is in another county, and that one will close too, following the dissolution of the foundation, but there is nothing we can do about it,because now we have legal decision in our hand and nobody is above the law." Gate continued.

Copyright C 2004 Bucharest Daily News