Lack of social housing behind high number of children in institutional care

Half of the children who end up in institutional care in the Czech Republic are there because their parents cannot afford to pay rent or live in inadequate conditions, the news site Novinky.cz reported. According to the site 1.5 million people, of that 250,000 children live in inadequate conditions. Many of the children, who never return home, have the same problem when they are released from the facility at the age of 18 and end up homeless. Novinky says this is linked to the fact that the Czech Republic does not have social housing. A proposed bill on social housing is now being prepared by the government and will need to pass through both houses of parliament before coming into force. Optimistic forecasts say this could happen in mid 2017 at the earliest.