The home of the youth at risk in Haifa is in danger of closing • "The home on Haim Street"

The Ministry of Welfare and Social Security is currently holding a tender (May 2024) in order to find an association that will operate the roof beams for at-risk youth across the country, including the house on Haim Street in Haifa. According to the organization Kach Le Ovadim, the results of the tender may cause harm to at-risk youth who use the services of the home on Haim Street, which is a hostel for primary care for at-risk youth in Haifa, and in addition, according to the tender, the hostel may be in the Haifa district and not in the city itself.

"The house on Haim Street"

In the State of Israel there are 8 roof trusses which are short-term hostels for at-risk youth. These frameworks provide an initial service to teenagers in need. 7 roof beams out of the 8 are managed by the Hahot association. The rooftop in Haifa is called "The House on Chaim Street", even though it is on a well-known street in the center of Carmel.

This is a primary hostel, which accepts boys and girls in risk situations without a family background. They come to the house, because they suffer from a number of deformities, including addictions, traumas following sexual assaults and difficulties at home. After receiving and understanding the background, the house on Haim Street, through a therapeutic team, provides them with a warm home, primary psychological and social care, a warm bed and hot food and all the basics.

Amot Amot is a non-profit (a non-profit organization) that works in cooperation with and under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs and its main funder is from the Ministry of Social Affairs. Amot Amot has been operating for over 40 years and has managed the house on Haim Street for about 9 years.

The tender of the Ministry of Welfare

It should be noted that the tender of the Ministry of Welfare for the management of the roof beams is for a period of two years with the possibility of extension and according to sources in the association it is very difficult to maintain employees for such a short period, because employees naturally seek stability. "The Ministry of Welfare, in accordance with the policy of the Ministry of Finance, is constantly interested in changing organizations that manage for it, so as not to be too dependent on any of the organizations. This creates instability, which harms the entire system and first of all the youth who come to us.

In addition, according to the tender, they are interested in leaving the big cities for the small cities, and this is also problematic. A lot of youth at risk and without a family background are draining to the big cities. When an organization operates such a hostel, it creates connections with the community, and as soon as the organization changes, it needs to re-tie the connections, invest in the structure and recruit a staff. Not to mention the therapeutic relationship between the workers and the youth and the trust that was created between them and violated. We are very concerned about copying the activity. This will harm our employees, but first and foremost the youth, who need us."

Signals association response:

The Ahot association has been treating youth and young people at risk professionally and with great success for over forty years, in cooperation with and under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs. These days the association is in the tendering process with the ministry. The association expresses hope and faith that the ministry will consider its decisions seriously and with the required responsibility, with the best interests of the youth receiving the service in front of its eyes, in Haifa and throughout the country.

The head of the welfare branch at the Shakh for Workers organization, Martin Wheeler:

Power for the Workers is a general workers' organization, which represents tens of thousands of workers in a variety of fields, and also in associations that provide welfare services according to government tenders, published by the Ministry of Welfare. The organization represents the workers at the house on Haim Street.

Head of the welfare branch of the force for employees, Martin Wheeler:

We are the representative workers' organization of 90% of the roofing workers in the whole country. The workers at the house on Haim Street are unionized by force and we have a collective bargaining agreement with the association that operates the house on Haim Street and the other rooftops throughout the country. We submitted a petition to the labor court demanding to stop the tender and enter into consultations with us.

"A big city needs a structure for at-risk youth because they have nowhere to be. Any boy or girl can come to a house on Haim Street and say they have nowhere to be and they will enter a 3-month process of treatment, and from there they will move to a long-term setting. This is part of the welfare services, and most of them are privatized to private entities.

The person who operates the house on Haim Street is a respected association called Ohot, which operates 7 out of 8 roof trusses in Israel. A tender has been issued for the operation of the roof beams. According to the privatization policy, once every few years a tender must be issued. A tender has been issued which says that for sure the Signals Association will lose some of the beams, employees will be fired and the entire therapeutic sequence will be affected. The Ministry of Social Affairs is incentivized to remove the roof beams outside the big cities. According to them, it doesn't matter where the rooftop is operated and there are teenagers who come from all kinds of places, but actually it is an attempt to lower the costs of renting.

A roof truss is a large structure, usually a villa, in some places rent is paid that the state finances or it is a donation. In the previous tenders the definition was in which city the roof truss would be, and now it is a district, which does not require that the roof truss be in the largest city. Haifa district, for example , is up to the Golan Heights. The problem is that the boys will lose the caregivers and it will be difficult to recruit new employees. It's a shame."

The tender procedures for the roof beams must be frozen

In the petition of the labor force organization to the Jerusalem Regional Labor Court, they ask the court to order the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security to freeze the tender procedures for the roof beams. In addition, they request that the Ministry of Welfare consult with the Workers' Power in connection with all the provisions of the tender that affect the employment of the workers, their wages, the conditions of their employment and collective labor relations. Another significant point is that Power for the Workers requests from the court, that the labor agreements that currently apply between the Ahot association and the workers will continue to apply to any franchisee, who will operate the roof beams at the association's place.

The response of the Ministry of Welfare:

The office leads a professional process in which the roof beams will be transformed into trauma-oriented frameworks for young people and teenagers in accordance with the accepted trend in the world. The old model was based on damage minimization and offered a bed and a hot meal, compared to the new model which turns the roof beams into frames that allow a therapeutic space while placing emphasis on the welfare of the youth and the professional response they will receive in the frames, and for that reason even increased the budget in the new tender for these frames.

Also, the tender allows flexibility regarding the geographic location in order to allow the operators to offer a structure adapted to the therapeutic needs. It should be noted that the office operates according to the law that requires publishing new tenders for operating frameworks every few years. The ministry considers it important to provide a therapeutic response that will suit the needs of youth in risk situations, including the location of the building, and even increased the budget in order to find a building that would be suitable to provide these therapeutic torments.