Czech authorities are ready to house the homeless in empty castles and hotels during quarantine
Towns and villages in the Czech Republic are solving the problem of where to place people from the streets, among whom infection spreads many times faster than among the more socially protected layer of citizens. According to Radio Prague, the administrations of some regions propose to allocate castles, hotels that have naturally emptied for obvious reasons, and even brothels for the self-isolation of the homeless, where they could live in small groups.
In Prague, at the end of last week, in cooperation with the capital's charitable organization, a tent city was opened for people without a roof over their heads, where they can spend time and sleep during the coronavirus pandemic. Charita employees distribute masks and food to them. The capacity of the tent city is only up to 70 people; the authorities of the Czech capital are trying to find a solution for where to place the rest. As reported by the head of the social affairs department of the city hall, Milena Jonova, the number of "people from the streets in Prague is, according to rough estimates, about a thousand." There are not enough places in social service institutions for everyone, so it is proposed to house people without a fixed place of residence in empty dormitories and hotels for the critical period.
According to the newspaper Hospodářské noviny, "Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib at the end of March called on the founder of the de facto brothel ShowPark in the Holešovice district, the company E.R.O.C., to vacate the premises owned by the city hall, in order to use it for housing the homeless." Prostitution in the Czech Republic is not a legal and regulated activity; pimping is prosecuted by law. Brothels nevertheless operate, but hide under the guise of massage parlors and strip clubs.
The crisis staff of the Liberec Region in the north of the republic called on subordinate institutions to compile a record of homeless people in this area. A positive example, according to the regional authorities, is the city of Liberec with a population of less than 100,500 people, where a group of specialists called COVID-19/bezpřístřeší (COVID-19/without roof) is already operating. The administration of the hejtman, in turn, has been actively searching for temporary housing where the homeless could wait out the quarantine period.
In shelters and other social protection institutions in Liberec, more than a hundred homeless people currently live. In one of them, the social shelter for homeless men Speramus on Široká Street, a reporter from Czech Radio also visited. "When the homeless leave the house, we check if they have forgotten to put on a mask. Upon return, they disinfect their hands and, of course, change their shoes," says social worker Naděžda Vaňharová.
"We provide basic services for our clients. In our house, men are housed in rooms for four and six people, which is, of course, far from an ideal situation. They must adhere to a fairly strict order. In total, we currently have 25 clients whom we try to keep under our roof. However, when they spend a long time together, it is quite difficult to do so. Those who are able go shopping themselves. Fifteen of our residents have already reached retirement age; instead of them, social shelter workers go to the stores. Some clients go to work," said Robert Prade, director of the society Návrat, which founded this shelter.
The society Návrat is also the founder of the House for Women and Families with Children on Věkova Street, which has undergone a comprehensive renovation. Both houses received fifty respirators each, as well as medical masks from the Kontakt center, whose social workers regularly wash and disinfect them. Currently, they are concerned about the shortage of contactless thermometers for measuring body temperature and warm shoes for their clients.
A way out is also being sought in the Moravian-Silesian Region, which, according to the Research Institute of Labor and Social Affairs as of the end of 2019, has the largest number of homeless people in the Czech Republic. "The homeless can also recover in quarantine organized in the space of long-empty castles in Liběšice, where there used to be a boarding school for the disabled, and also in Hliněná. This initiative was put forward by the authorities of the Ústí Region," said Martin Klika, deputy hejtman of the Ústí Region. He explained that the castles are empty because the region has not yet managed to sell this property. The hejtman's administration has already prepared two hundred beds in currently unused facilities.