The Prague Post
November 22nd, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague accomodation

Home » Archives » Opinion

Postview

Help for homeless could include job training
Postview | Search restaurants | Archives

November 21st, 2007 issue

Under communism, the authorities proudly liked to say there were no homeless people.

Everyone was given a job to do, no matter how menial, and a place to stay, even if it were an institutional room.
If you were unwilling to work, you could be classified as an “asocial element” and taken off to do forced labor, for example, building factories.
Following the 1989 revolution, Prague saw a rapid rise in the number of homeless people — some alcoholics, some gambling or drug addicts, some mentally ill, some down on their luck, some a combination of all of those things and more. Nonprofit groups have put the number at as little as 2,500 people to as many as 6,000. A count by volunteers from nonprofit groups on one night in 2004 found 3,000 people with no permanent place to sleep.
But many homeless people live “off the grid” and largely hidden from sight — we have met people who tell us stories about taking temporary shelter in abandoned metro stops and “squats” in abandoned buildings.
We applaud city efforts in recent years to help, including a recently opened “day center” for homeless people near the main train station in a parking lot under the Wilsonova expressway.

Three-fourths of the money for the day center came from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry; the rest came from the city.

Prague taxpayers also pick up the tab for a 230-bed houseboat (which cost about $1 million to open). All in all, shelters around the city can house up to 437 people, or about one-fifth of the low estimate of the homeless population.
About 116 clients on average spent the night in the “bostel” (boat-hostel) last week because of the cold weather, according to Jiří Janeček, city councilor for social issues. Earlier weeks saw about 96 people per night sleeping in the shelter, Janeček said in a press statement. That number is expected to rise later in the winter if cold temperatures continue.
In January and February of 2006, officials put up a temporary tent city in Letná Park and housed people for 23 days at a cost of 912,000 Kč ($40,623) to keep them from freezing to death.
So we see that officials come up with plans to help homeless people, the government counts them, it offers medical services and hepatitis and HIV testing, but their numbers continue to grow, by most accounts.
Dealing with homeless people is a global issue, not one unique to the Czech Republic. Virtually every country has people who fall through the cracks of society. And there is virtually always controversy around whether opening new centers and places to live for the homeless will draw more of them to a particular area or whether the services should open in an area because they’re there already.
What we’d like to suggest is for more political will across city districts to help these people get jobs and get back on their feet.
We think creating the current (but reactive) programs is a great start. Now, politicians in other city districts should step up to the plate in offering more services for homeless people — things like computer skills and other job training. Naděje, the nonprofit that runs the new day center, has 13 other centers around Prague, but it’s always an uphill battle to get approvals, workers say.
To politicians around the country, we say: Be more proactive. It certainly beats the alternative.


Other articles in Opinion (21/11/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.