National Secretariat for Social Assistance (SNAS) of the Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger – MDS (which during 2019-2022 was designated Ministry of Citizenship – MC), by means of an inter-federative SUAS management structure. Funding is co-participatory between the three levels of government: municipal, state and federal.

States and, above all, Municipalities, through CREAS and POP Centers.

The Service was instituted and regulated from the Brazilian Typification of Social Assistance Services, published on November 11, 2009 and reissued in 2014^1,2.
 

Currently in operation.

Social assistance support through a service to Strengthen Community and Family Bonds, in the form of assistance in its own social assistance centers and, above all, through visits by itinerary teams to public spaces characterized by a large concentration of homeless people and/or exposed to sexual exploitation and child labor.

It is characterized as the response of SUAS within the Brazilian Policy for the homeless population.

N/A

Children, adolescents, young people, adults, the elderly and families who use public spaces as a form of housing and/or survival, with focus on areas with a greater concentration of sexual exploitation and child labor activities.

The screening is primarily conducted through the assessment of local SUAS teams, who actively patrol public spaces to identify individuals in these situations. The geographic coverage and focus areas of these active search teams are defined based on analysis of SUAS and PETI care surveillance, in addition to other inputs shared by SGD, in order to maximize coverage in regions with a greater chance of cases of sexual exploitation and child labor. 

Considering these general guidelines, eligibility is assessed be social assistance teams on a case-by-case basis with consideration to the given context. The characterization of homelessness and/or abandonment is identified through self-reported criteria, as well as through the fieldwork conducted by the social assistance teams. The characterization of situations involving additional rights violations (such as child labor or sexual exploitation) may be based on formal records provided by SGD. However, it can also result from the social assistance teams' own investigations, as victims often lack access to justice. In such cases, the referral process offered by SEAS should focus on providing the necessary support to make justice accessible.  Because it is a mobile service, SEAS ends up focusing more on referring the identified public to other PSE services more focused on providing systemic monitoring of these people, for example SEPS, and which include actions such as registration of these people in the Single Registry and support in accessing other public policies.

• According to the Pop Centers Monthly Service Record System (RMA), between January and August 2022, these units registered, on average, 31,052 services to different people per month, with an average of 2 services per person per month³.

• According to RMA CREAS, between January and August 2022, these units registered, on average, 31,522 visits to different people per month, with an average of 2.3 visits per person per month. 

• It can be estimated, therefore, that the average number of visits to different people per month, considering the two facilities (CREAS and Pop Centers), should have been slightly above 62,000.

Of the total number of people approached by CREAS teams:

• 4% were boys, and 3% were girls aged 0 to 12 years;

• 4% were boys, and 2% were girls aged 13 to 17 years;

• 62% were men, and 17% were women aged 18 to 59 years; and 

• 5% were elderly men, and 2% were elderly women.

The 2022 RMA CREAS also investigates some factors of violence affecting people benefiting from the service, so it can be inferred that:

• 35% of these people were adult users of crack or other illicit drugs;

• 22% were migrants;

• 6% were children or adolescents in child labor (up to 15 years); 

• 1% were children or adolescents using crack or other drugs; and

• less than 1% were children or adolescents in situations of sexual exploitation.

There is flexibility for social assistance teams to carry out the approach and offer support activities that best suit local priorities and capacities. In any case, the CREAS SUAS Census⁴ reflects some guiding values that should inform the offer of activities, as per the below classifications:

• Identification of situations of personal and social risk with rights violations;

• Territory knowledge/mapping;

• Information, communication and defense of beneficiaries' rights;

• Avtice listening;

• Building a bond between the reference team and beneficiaries;

• Referral to the network of local services;

• Coordination of the network of social assistance services;

• Coordination with sectoral public policy services;

• Coordination with the other bodies of the guarantee and defense of rights;

• Preparation of reports;

• Awareness-raising actions to disseminate the work carried out;

• Actions to strengthen family and community bonds; and

• Record of service and follow-up.

Strategic activities can be developed in CREAS, POP Centers and/or partner agencies. The active search occurs in public spaces with a higher probability of identifying homeless people and other priority groups. Interaction takes place at the place of identification and additional follow-up can take place at CREAS and POP Centers (including as part of other services or programs to which people may be referred by SEAS).

SUAS funding is shared by the three levels of government (Federal Government, states and municipalities). Resources are allocated in blocks and minimums, which have some flexibility to finance the various SUAS initiatives (see Policy Brief on financing SUAS). The table below illustrates the budget executions (co-financing) of the Federal Government for discretionary actions of the National Secretariat for Social Assistance/ Social Assistance Fund (SNAS/FNAS) between 2002 and 2022 (in real values corrected to December 31, 2022). These values encompass the entire universe of services, programs, costing of management activities and investment of SUAS, so they do not refer only to the costs of SEAS.

Federal budget executions with discretionary actions of SNAS/ FNAS between 2002 and 2022 (in real values adjusted for December 31, 2022)[i]

Although we did not find consolidated values on the resources specifically directed to SEAS financing, it is assumed that the Medium Complexity Fixed Minimums – Social Approach (which is part of the Medium Complexity Specialized Social Protection Block) is the most directed to financing the SEAS. In 2022, the Federal Government transferred a total of R$ 8,194,195.43 to this Minimum[ii] (an amount corresponding to 1% of the total expenses of the Federal Government specifically directed to the 12 social assistance services nationally typified by SUAS this year).

[ii] Minimum values extracted from (GoB, Min. Social Development 2023a) and associated with specific services according to the authors' interpretation from (GoB, Min. Social Development 2013; Public Prosecutor's Office of Bahia, n.d.)
 

A quasi-experimental academic study points out that the implementation of SUAS generated expansion and improvement in the provision of services, as well as improvement of administrative capacity at the municipal level, even controlling for more specific political factors⁵. 

However, we did not identify robust studies on the impacts of SEAS in any more specific way.

There is guidance that favors the active search of SEAS in regions with a greater probability of occurrence of child labor. Additionally, the RMA CREAS monitors a specific set of activities to be offered in addressing homeless and unaccompanied children and adolescents (without responsible adults):

• Alert the Guardianship Council.

• Assess the risks that the child or adolescent is subjected to.

• In conjunction with the Guardianship Council, identify the family of origin and evaluate the possibilities of safe return for family and community living.

• Use a specific methodology for the Social Approach of children and adolescents, while building procedural/gradual alternatives for getting them off the streets, avoiding compulsory fostering.

• Coordinate with players that are part of the Rights Guarantee System for protection and other necessary support.

• Establish flow and coordination between the Specialized Social Approach Service and the Foster Family Care Service, with a specific methodology for homeless children and adolescents.

• Coordinate with the justice system for the application of protective measures and other necessary referrals.

  
   

In addition to actively seeking out areas where there is a greater probability of child labor, there are also similar guidelines for prioritizing areas with a higher concentration of sexual exploitation activities.

Guidelines and references for other networks such as education, health and basic social protection, and Specialized Social Protection of medium and high complexity, in addition to close interactions with SGD with a more specific focus on combating situations of abandonment and homelessness in areas with a higher occurrence of child labor and sexual exploitation.

The specific adaptations of SEAS varied greatly in each context, given the flexibility of state and municipal teams to adapt according to the specific needs of each context. However, there was a set of more structuring actions with an effect on SUAS in general, such as:

• Several municipal teams developed voluntary joint efforts to support the application for Emergency Aid (AE, acronym in Portuguese), although SUAS was not directly involved in AE.

• The Federal Government maintained the IGD-Aid payments even with the temporary suspension of SUAS responsibilities in support of the program (and the PBF program itself) in 2020 and much of 2021.

• The Federal Government generated instructional material with service protocols considering the challenge of avoiding agglomeration.

• Through Ordinance MC No. 369, of April 29, 2020, the Federal Government distributed R$ 2.4 billion to SUAS as extraordinary credit distributed as follows among the municipalities with the highest prevalence of elderly, PwD, migrants and homeless people:

  • R$ 9.1 million was transferred to the interiorization of Venezuelan migrants and refugees;

  • R$ 158.1 million were allocated to the purchase of PPE for SUAS professionals working on the front line, serving, for example, sheltered elderly, homeless people and victims of rights violation;

  • R$ 185.6 million were transferred to the purchase of food from the elderly and people with disabilities served in the SUAS network;

  • R$ 577.7 million for the co-financing of social assistance actions, according to the needs of each location considering the pandemic.

• Through Ordinances MC No. 378, of May 7, 2020, and MC No. 468, of August 13, 2020, R$ 1.5 billion were also transferred to: (a) the reorganization of activities in SUAS units; (b) the purchase of other items necessary to deal with the emergency; or (c) the expansion of social assistance offers during the pandemic. Of these:

  • R$ 1 billion was specifically intended to reinforce basic social protection actions;

  • R$ 437.2 million were specifically intended to reinforce Specialized Social Protection actions^6,7,8.
    

In addition to the transfer of funds, several technical guidance notes on work in the context of the pandemic were released by the MDS.

1. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2009. Tipificação Nacional de Serviços Socioassistenciais - Texto da RESOLUÇÃO No. 109, DE 11 DE NOVEMBRO DE  2009. https://www.prattein.com.br/home/images/stories/PDFs/Tipificacao_AS.pdf.

2.  GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2014. Tipificação Nacional de Serviços Socioassistenciais”. https://central.to.gov.br/download/231761

3. GoB, Min. Cidadania. Censo SUAS e RMA – Bases e Resultados > Censo SUAS 2021 - CREAS.  https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/snas/vigilancia/index2.php.

4. GoB, Min. Cidadania 2022. Censo SUAS e RMA – Bases e Resultados > Censo SUAS 2021 - CREAS”. 3 de agosto de 2022. https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/snas/vigilancia/index2.php.

5. Cavalcante, Pedro, e Beatriz Bernarde Ribeiro. 2012. “O Sistema Único de Assistência Social: resultados da implementação da política nos municípios brasileiros”. Rev. Adm. Pública 46 (dezembro). https://www.scielo.br/j/rap/a/bwPZgHkvMbPcWCcYcgKHtPb/?lang=pt#.

6. GoB, Min. Cidadania. 2022. Atuação da Proteção Social Especial do SUAS durante a pandemia da COVID-19. https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/pesquisas/documentos/relatorio/relatorio_226.pdf

7. GoB, IPEA. 2022. “Boletim de Políticas Sociais -  acompanhamento e análise N. 29, 2022. https://portalantigo.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39098&Itemid=9.

8. IPEA. 2021. “Boletim de Políticas Sociais: Acompanhamento e análise. Assistência Social. Políticas Sociais: acompanhamento e análise, 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.38116/bps28/assistenciasocial.