Homeless hit hard by freezing weather

Temperatures in the Czech Republic have risen above 0 for the first time in weeks, and while that’s good news for most of us, for the homeless slightly warmer weather could mean the difference between life and death. So far this winter, over 20 people – most of them homeless – have died as a consequence of freezing weather. Although there is no official data available, the numbers are definitely higher than in the last couple of years. Are the authorities doing enough to deal with the problem?

Finding a place to sleep is one of the most pressing problems facing the homeless in freezing weather. Due to the exceptionally cold weather, humanitarian organisations all over the country have been offering more beds or at least shelters with chairs in the past couple of weeks. Petra Lakatošová is the head of Naděje, or Hope, one of the biggest charities, that has been helping the homeless since the early 1990s.

“The capacity of all of our centres is used to the full at the moment, which means that all our beds are occupied. Over the past couple of days, when temperatures dropped far below zero, we kept our day centres open around the clock. Every night up to 120 people could come and spend the night on a chair. The main aim was to prevent the homeless from freezing to death.”

Every winter, the city of Prague has provided some kind of emergency accommodation to the homeless. This year, it also employs field workers who inform the homeless about the possibility of spending the night in temporary shelters. Although there is still a surplus of beds, Petra Lakatošová from Naděje says not all the homeless are actually interested in using their services.

Photo: archive of Radio Prague

“Some people are not looking for help in our facilities. They prefer to stay in temporary shelters, such as garden sheds, squats or underground sewers. They often have dogs and they don’t want to part with them. Or they live in couples and don’t want to be separated. Most of the facilities, including ours, only provide separate accommodation for men and women.”

Another problem is that the homeless have to meet certain requirements if they want to be accommodated:

“All of the services provided by our day centres are for free. In night shelters, however, we charge our clients from 20 up to 100 crowns. And, according to our rules, we don’t accommodate people who are drunk. This tends to be a problem, because our clients do tend to drink, and then they are more likely to freeze.”

According to Petra Lakatošová, the number of the charity’s clients has not increasing over the past couple of years. Their structure, however, has been changing, with the number of migrant workers gradually rising. With current lay offs and more very cold weather expected, the problem could get more serious in the future.