The claim by the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Jorge Macri, to the Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillof opens a new chapter in the fiscal and political dispute between the City and the Province of Buenos Aires, this time focusing on the care of homeless people. With a tone that combines institutional pressure and political confrontation, the Buenos Aires administration demands that the Province take charge of the costs that the City currently assumes for assisting thousands of Buenos Aires residents who live on the streets within its territory.
The issue is not minor: according to official data, at least 2,327 people residing in the province of Buenos Aires currently receive assistance in the Social Inclusion Centers (CIS) of the City. This situation, the Buenos Aires government maintains, generates a monthly cost per person of $1,163,135, which accumulates a debt of more than $27,000 million since the entry into force of Decree 373/2025, a national regulation that establishes that each jurisdiction must be responsible for the care of this population within its territory.
The legal argument is clear: the law establishes specific responsibilities and, in parallel, the Province itself has legal tools—such as the Comprehensive Assistance Program for Homeless People created by Law 13,956—to address the problem. However, the City maintains that these obligations are not being met, which results in an indirect transfer of costs to the Buenos Aires district.
In this context, the Ministers of Human Development and Habitat, Gabriel Mraida, and of the Treasury, Gustavo Arengo, formalized the claim before the Buenos Aires Minister of Economy, Pablo López, demanding the “immediate transfer of resources” to cover both expenses already incurred and future ones. The letter highlights a sensitive point: the funds that the City allocates to this problem come from the “effort of the people of Buenos Aires” and could be used in other priority areas of the local budget.
The political background is evident. Macri toughened his speech by pointing out that the people of Buenos Aires should not “pay for the misgovernment” of the Province, in a direct message to Kicillof that seeks to install the idea of non-compliance and administrative disorder on the other side of General Paz. But beyond the crossing, the conflict reveals a structural tension: the difficulty of coordinating social policies in a metropolitan area where administrative borders do not coincide with the real dynamics of exclusion.
Meanwhile, the City maintains a robust assistance network, with 61 Social Inclusion Centers that house more than 4,600 people and offer comprehensive services—from food and accommodation to psychological support and job training—as well as a permanent care system with mobile phones and first response devices. That infrastructure, however, today is absorbing a demand that exceeds its own jurisdiction.
The central point of the conflict, then, is not only economic, but also political and institutional: who is responsible for poverty in a territory shared in fact, but fragmented in terms of state responsibility. The answer, for now, is far from resolved.
by RN
