Outcry as city approves controversial homeless plan

Organizations working with the homeless, the country's largest opposition party, the political party likely to lead Prague after fall elections and homeless people themselves are all speaking out against the plans by City Hall to build an "integrated assistance center" for the homeless on the outskirts of the city.

Under the plans proposed by Councilor Jiří Janeček (ODS), which were approved by the City Council Aug. 17, a new center is to be built within six months in Malešice, an industrial area on the eastern edge of the capital.

Describing the facilities planned for the center, Janeček said it would be "an oasis" for the homeless.

"In this oasis, there will be a doctor, soup twice a day and some accommodation," the councilor told daily Lidové noviny. "They will be allowed to pitch a tent or make a fire."

The plans would also see a registry of homeless people created. Janeček said homeless people would not be required to live in the new space, but that social workers should encourage them to go there.

"The intensity of checks would increase, so they can find out that they will have the most peaceful life there," Janeček said. "No one will be held there by force, but they will know that they cannot stay elsewhere."

Ilja Hradecký, chairman of Naděje, a Christian charity that works with the homeless in Prague, described the idea as "absolutely misconceived."

He told The Prague Post the plans would either see homeless people leaving the camp each day after being taken there against their will, or homeless people being "interned" at the center, something that he termed a violation of human rights.

"Neither outcome leads toward integration, but represents segregation," Hradecký said. Other NGOs that help the homeless have also strongly criticized the plans, saying they would preclude the reintegration of these people into society.

Homeless people at the Naděje day center near Hlavní nádraží, Prague's main train station, gave their views to The Prague Post on the issue, likening the proposals to a Nazi concentration camp.

Helena, a homeless woman from Prague, said that "this camp is the biggest nonsense I have ever come across." She added that homeless people feared both being forcibly held at the center and the constant involvement of police.

"Offering someone a place to sleep is one thing, but guarding someone by police force is another - it's mad," she said. "I think the idea behind it is to get us all there and keep us there. Why would have they come up with the registry for homeless people otherwise?"

"I wonder what kind of idiot came up with the camp idea," commented Vítězslav Dvořák, a native of Brno. "I guess that if our government was made up of homeless people, it would have made a difference."

Miroslav Šimůnek from Dobkovice called the plans "pure nonsense."

"This idea for creating a camp for homeless people sounds like a concentration camp to me," he said.

Describing the value of remaining in the center of the city to homeless people, Šimůnek said that "in the center you have freedom and contact with 'normal' citizens."

He added that he believed homeless people who beg would simply return to the city center if they were relocated.

"There are various kinds of homeless people, but I would say most of them definitely want to get their former lives back and find a dignified job and accommodation," Šimůnek said. "It can happen to any one of us, after all. One can get there very easily without realizing that it is actually happening."

Thirty-year-old Tomáš Kořínek from Horažďovice said he believed the center could provide some valuable accommodation space, but said City Hall needed to give more details about the plans.

"The crucial problem is that we do not have enough information on what exactly the camp will look like," he said.

Rather than maintaining a heavy police presence to keep the homeless people in the camps, Kořínek added that any security at the camp should be to guard the homeless themselves from danger.

"When you become homeless, you are simply more vulnerable, and thus you feel more endangered by many things around you," he said.

At present, there are three day centers for the homeless in the city and five dormitories with just 350 beds to cater to an estimated 3,500 homeless people in Prague.

City Hall has yet to receive the required permits to set up the planned facility in Malešice. Other locations that were discussed were near the Ďáblice dump heap at the northern end of the city, and near the Jižní Město housing estate in the south.

The move is part of the city's Action Plan on the Issue of Homeless People 2010-13.

Speaking in June ahead of proposing the plan, Janeček criticized the actions of some homeless people in the city.

"There are some homeless here who do not respect anything at all," he said. "We are looking for the instruments with which to deal with them."

In a statement released upon approval of the plan Aug. 17, Janeček said the project aimed to "mitigate the negative phenomena that accompany homelessness and to facilitate the ordinary citizens of Prague in their daily lives."

He said the council scheme "does not pretend to aim to replace the concept of addressing the issue of homelessness, but attempts to solve some actual problems of the city of Prague."

Janeček added that the changes aimed to "help homeless people solve their difficult situation."

The opposition Social Democrats have already pledged to block the measure if they gain sufficient seats in this fall's council elections. A more likely prospect is a victory for the center-right TOP 09 in local elections in October.

"These ideas do not conform to the current trends of how to solve the issue of homelessness. Moreover, the project has potential problems with human rights infringement. We consider very unfortunate any solution that will lead to an accumulation of socially disadvantaged people in one place and recording their numbers," said František Laudát, chairman of TOP 09's Prague chapter.

"We believe in patient and extensive work by social workers in the right places and creating a social background where the city provides essential services. We want to closely cooperate with NGOs when addressing these problems."

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

More on this story

Word on the Street: Relocating the homeless

Postview: Plan for homeless camp solves nothing

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com