HOMELESS POPULATION IN POST-COVID-19 PERIOD COMPARING V4 COUNTRIES

Abstract

Empirical surveys of the number of homeless people or people at risk of homelessness are carried out by several developed countries, for example in most OECD countries. It is thus possible to gain some insight into the extent of this type of social exclusion and its variability across countries. According to population estimates in 2021, 5,449,270 inhabitants lived in the Slovak Republic at the beginning of the year. Of the total population, 48.9% were men and 51.1% were women. Slightly more inhabitants, up to 53.2%, lived in cities than in the countryside (46.8%). Currently, children and youth up to 14 years of age (inclusive), i.e. residents of pre-productive age, made up 15.9% of the population. At the same time, the population in the productive age (from 15 to 64 years) represented 67% of the Slovak population, and seniors in the post-productive age (65 and over) made up 17.1% of the Slovak population. The homeless currently make up 21% of the population in 2022. People experiencing homelessness are at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but our research results did not confirm that homeless people die more often than other risk groups, and there was no need to close shelters due to the pandemic situation; there was a higher demand for social services.