Almost 24,000 homeless people live in the Czech Republic

Prague, Oct 17 (CTK) – Some 23,830 homeless people, including 2,600 minors under 18, lived in the Czech Republic in the spring, while men considerably prevailed among them, Labour and Social Affairs Ministry spokesman Vladimir Dostalek told CTK today, presenting data from a survey.

The highest number of the homeless lived in Prague and the Moravia-Silesia Region, according to a survey and estimates conducted by the Labour and Social Research Institute in April.

The survey took place in 403 municipalities where more than a half of the 10.6 million population of the Czech Republic live, in 232 asylum homes, 19 homeless “midway” centres, 188 hospitals and 35 prisons

The institute reached the overall data using the “extrapolation” method or estimations based on the gathered data.

The survey shows that about a half of the homeless use social and accommodation services and stay in asylum homes, municipal hostels for the homeless and other facilities or were hospitalised, most often at psychiatric hospitals, and imprisoned during the census.

Men made up 80 percent of the homeless who spend the night outdoors of in public hostels, while the share of men and women is more equal in asylum homes with 30 percent of women, 38 percent of men and 32 percent of children.

“Primarily quite large towns with the population of more than 20,000 inhabitants are attracting the homeless. To put it simply, the bigger a municipality is, the more probable it will be that the homeless will concentrate there. This is why the highest concentration of the homeless is in the regions whose population lives mainly in large towns,” the institute said in its final report.

Some 3,540 homeless people live in the Moravia-Silesia Region, 3,250 in Prague and some 2,450 in South Moravia, while under 800 homeless live in the South Bohemia and Liberec regions each.

The highest share of the homeless in the population is in the Karlovy Vary Region (3 percent), followed by Moravia-Silesia (2.92 percent) and in the Usti Region (2.75 percent).

Prague, nevertheless, has the highest number, 2100, of homeless people who spend nights outside and in municipal hostels for the homeless.

The homeless population is the youngest in the Usti Region, aged 45 on average. It is the oldest, with the average age of 50, in the Zlin and Olomouc Regions.

Nationally, the average age of people without a home is about 47.

The highest number of homeless children was registered in Moravia-Silesia and South Moravia, more than 300 in each of the two regions. The number of such children was the lowest, 47, in the Karlovy Vary Region.

The latest national census in 2011 showed that there were 11,500 people in Czechia who had no home and sought aid.

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