Education

Going on Assignment in Prague July 2025 – July 12, 2025

A Different Kind of Tour

By Catherine Cox

Prague agency offers visits to the underbelly of the Czech capital – through the eyes of the city’s homeless.

On any given day in Prague, one of the city’s many visitors might see a sprightly middle-aged man leading a group of tourists through the cobble-stoned streets of the capital. But Roman is far from your typical Prague tour guide, and this is far from your typical Prague tour.

Once a meth addict living under a bridge, Roman now leads tours for Pragulic, a social enterprise that offers tourists an inside look at the homeless situation in Prague, and challenges people to fight stereotypes they may have about people without homes.

“This job has purpose and meaning,” Roman, who prefers not to give his last name, said through a translator as he led a recent group. He wants visitors to see the real world of the desperate and dispossessed living in this city.
Roman, one of Pragulic’s tour guides. Courtesy of Pragulic.

Co-founded by Tereza Jureckova, then a Charles University graduate student, the company strives to help those without homes reintegrate into society while opening the eyes of those who might be meeting the homeless or previously homeless for the first time. Since 2012, over 150,000 people from all over the world have taken the organization’s tours.

The goal is to help tourists “… understand the different causes of homelessness of the tour guides, in that way raising awareness that homeless people are in need, and that society should be more sensitive to this situation and help them too,” Jureckova said in an interview posted on the Pragulic website.

Since COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, the number of unhoused people has increased because the city was not ready for migrants, according to Tereza Mala, coordinator of the Solidarity Network at Mistni mistnim (Locals for Locals), an NGO helping the homeless and others in need.

Roman’s Past

Roman, one of the roughly 24,000 individuals without a permanent home in the Czech Republic, is well-acquainted with the homeless community. On a recent tour, whether it was an old woman whom he called grandmother, or a young man smoking a cigarette, passersby couldn’t help but stop and chat with the spunky, unreserved man

Originally from Slovakia, Roman came from a poor family. His parents were not able to support him and his siblings, so he was sent to foster care at the age of two.

Roman remained in contact with his parents until he came out as gay. After he told his mother, she severed her relationship with him. This caused tension within the family, and to this day, mother and son have not spoken.

Unfortunately, that can be the experience of many others, says Olga Pek, a member of the team at Kucharky bez domova (Cooks Without Homes), a group that helps homeless women by employing them at a bistro and giving them skills to work in gastronomy.

”Usually, the main reason [why someone might be homeless] is a confluence of adversities coupled with the lack of an immediate social support system – friends and family with resources to help,” Pek said.

In her work, Pek often sees poverty, discrimination, and mental health as factors in homelessness, but it is hard to pin down one concrete reason as to why someone may have ended up where they have.

“Up to 85% of the people on the streets have experienced what is called complex trauma – multiple traumatic events at the same time,” she said.

The tipping point for Roman came in 2015 after shooting meth took over his life. Starting out as an occasional way to let go, it quickly snowballed into addiction.

Meth was, and still is, one of the most dangerous and widespread drugs on the streets of Prague, Roman said.

“You think differently when you’re on drugs, but at some point, I realized I would never get off the streets if I didn’t put a stop to what I was doing,” he said.

Trash and people’s belongings were strewn across the dusty ground. Some of the people sat together on an inflatable air mattress, deep in conversation. They looked like any five people sitting under a bridge, except for their blankets and bags full of possessions. Their clothes were clean and in good condition (Roman said a center where they can shower and do laundry for free was located nearby). They even had a tent that provided some semblance of privacy.

Then, a young woman, approximately 20 years old, hurled her phone in a fit of rage, shattering it on the gravel away from the group. Sitting erect and rigid, she stared back with sunken eyes, expressionless.

Roman said she was most likely going through withdrawal symptoms, which can make a person aggressive and agitated.

Irene Teush, a vacationer from Tel Aviv, was greatly impacted by what she saw.

“I’ll remember the young woman lying there underneath the bridge,” Teush said.

She looked down and shook her head, struggling to find the words to describe how she felt.

“It is hard to see things like that. It is emotional.”
Roman (right) stopping to talk to other unhoused friends exiting a metro station. Photo by Catherine Cox.

The Long Way Back

Some may spend the rest of their lives without a place to call home, but for others like Roman, homelessness is a wake-up call for healing.

Six years ago, he joined Pragulic, and after one year giving tours, Roman said he decided to get clean. After 10 grueling months, he battled his addiction and won. Roman said he has now been clean for five years and is living in halfway housing.

He credits Pragulic for helping him get back on his feet.

The company provides the guides with a way to make money as well as other helpful initiatives, like supplying a metro pass. (Roman doesn’t use it, though. He enjoys the thrill of trying to evade the fare inspectors, he said.)

There are other resources in Prague unhoused people can use to get help. Most of these are private organizations. Roman showed the tour group the Nadeje center near the main train station, a social services facility with a focus on young people who are without homes.

Government social workers will step in during emergency cases. For example, Roman pointed out a man sitting under the shelter of a tree. While he was asleep, someone had stolen his prosthetic legs.

The dismal gray sky above portended an approaching downpour. Unable to move to a more secure location, the man struggled to cover his few belongings with a soiled blue tarp.

Roman said social workers had already been notified, and they were in the process of replacing the prosthetics within the coming days.

The Czech government also has centers where those who are unhoused can receive free medical services, food, and clean clothes, but these are few and inadequate to the need, say aid workers.

Mala says authorities should be doing more to solve the issue of homelessness.

“The government needs to care more for the topic of homelessness in general and make the social field more of a priority. Social support is underestimated … and we cannot ask NGOs to provide professional support to the most vulnerable groups,” she said.

Roman says advocating for the homeless is important work. That is why he continues to give tours and speak out about his experience.

“Nine years on the street has changed my view on people that are unhoused. I am proud of my work. Thanks to my experiences and highs and lows, I can help others,” he said.

…

Catherine Cox is a student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville studying journalism and electronic media. She reported and wrote this story while on Transitions’ Going on Assignment international reporting summer course in July 2024.