Milan City Angels open homeless 'oasis'

(ANSA) - Milan, March 22 - The voluntary group City Angels has opened the first so-called 'oasis' for the homeless where street people can use a canteen, get medical services and borrow books from a library in the first initiative of its kind in Italy.
    The 'Homeless Village', set up in a former Roma camp, is equipped to house 70 people with the aim of raising that to 300, the organisation said Wednesday.
    Other facilities to be added on include a gym, a women's shelter and a place for the homeless' pets.
    "It's a dream that is being realised," said Mario Furlan, founder of City Angels, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by, among others, Milan city council social policy chief Pierfrancesco Majorino.