Prague hotels, hostels to house hundreds of homeless people until 2021

Prague City Council is covering the cost of rent, operating, food, and hygiene for select hotels so they can stay open as an asylum for the homeless enrolled in the program — through the coronavirus crisis and beyond. Prague City Council is also liable for any damages.

The program, which has a number of sick and elderly homeless people enrolled, has had a number of visible benefits, said Zábranský. For example, the health of the guests has improved.

Since staying in the hotels, many of the homeless people using the program have begun using social services available to them as well, according to Jiří Judy, the director of the humanitarian organization Maltézská Pomoc. The organization is working with the city on the housing project. The services include programs to help homeless people find work.

“Everyone loves it here,” said Zuzana Hančaríková, who is staying at Czech Inn Hostel in Vršovice. “We get a hot lunch, we have coffee and tea here, they regularly bring us clean sheets, we can wash in the laundry room.”

Some hotels, however, may not want to extend their contracts for a variety of reasons, city officials said. Authorities will search for new hotels to fill the gap.

The plan, said Zábranský, is to gradually move the homeless guests from hotels to other types of housing options. There will be other changes as the program moves forward as well. For example, the city will no longer cover the cost of food.

However, as some guests chose to leave the accommodation, the actual cost of the program will decrease. Guests are also claiming social benefits to cover some of their costs as well.

There are more than 3,200 homeless people living in Prague, according to a census by the Research Institute of Labor and Social Affairs last April. A third of those people sleep on the street, and others use various social services or temporary accommodations.