New housing for people with autism could open in Prague next year
There will be six flats in the city building for people with disabilities. The people on the ground floor barrier-free areas of the house will be inhabited by people with severe autism. Prague councilor Milena Johnová (Prague Sobě) and Vlašská social services representative Martin Kahánek told the press today.
“The capital has long suffered from a lack of services for disadvantaged Praguers, which for years exported to institutes established by communists on the border. We are now strengthening the capacity of services for these Praguers so that they can stay in their hometown and not end up in large facilities from Prague, “said Johnová, who is in charge of the social area and healthcare in the Czech capital.
In the three-storey building, most of the new flats will be designed for sheltered and independent living for people with minor and moderate disabilities who do not need continuous care. The exact number of inhabitants of the new community housing will only be determined, Kahánek said. The apartment on the ground floor will be inhabited by four people with severe autism, help will be provided by the organization Hand for Life.
Reconstruction will begin in the coming days, it should be in the fall of this year. In total, the work should cost 26.87 million crowns. Part of the construction modifications of Luboš Brande, which according to the project is carried out by the Proxima company, will also be the construction of an outdoor elevator, which uses the accessibility of the house.
According to Johnová, the house, which used to serve social services in the past, has been unused since 2016. Prague acquired it in its administration in 2020, when the building was rewritten by the city council in Prague 8. Previously, the eighth city district planned to sell it. Now the house is entrusted to the contributory organization Domov sociální služeb Vlašská.
For the needs of people with autism, Prague already uses, among other things, several flats in other buildings. In 2020, the metropolitan management canceled the plan to build three houses in Odlochovice, Central Bohemia, where people with severe autism were to live. According to Councilor John, it is not right to “export” people with disabilities beyond the borders of the metropolis.