Complaint filed with the prosecutor’s office against GOPS employees in Warta and PCK in Bolesławiec

We wrote about the case of 77-year-old Ryszard in the article Homeless 77-year-old man thrown out of a shelter in Bolesławiec. He was sober and paid for his stay.

On January 3, at around 5:00 p.m., the man was escorted from the homeless shelter in Bolesławiec run by PCK. Ewa Duda, director of the Lower Silesian District Branch of PCK in Wrocław, wrote that steps had been taken to clarify the incident and its course with the shelter staff in Bolesławiec.

Neither GOPS in Warta Bolesławiecka nor PCK—in fact, no institution at all—took an interest in where the homeless Ryszard had been staying since January 3.

“We are filing a report with the Bolesławiec District Prosecutor’s Office concerning the possibility of a crime having been committed by the employees responsible for this situation. We are referring to employees of the Communal Social Welfare Centre in Warta Bolesławiecka and PCK employees in Bolesławiec. This concerns Article 160 of the Criminal Code,” declare attorney Katarzyna Bachciak-Gorzelak and Dr Wojciech Kasprzyk.

On January 5, Attorney Wojciech Kasprzyk contacted the Communal Social Welfare Centre in Warta and PCK in Wrocław.

“A homeless elderly man is wandering the streets without help in winter,” says Attorney Wojciech Kasprzyk. “I am calling GOPS in Warta and PCK in Wrocław to have him referred to the St. Albert facility in Wrocław, since they do not want him in Bolesławiec. A woman [pracownica GOPS w Warcie – przyp. red.] tells me that I have to submit an application, which will be considered on Monday, because she is finishing work now. I ask her where this elderly, ill homeless man is supposed to go. I heard that she did not know, and it was already 3:00 p.m. I say that the elderly man has nowhere to go, and I hear that an application must be submitted, and preferably I should go near Wrocław myself, because perhaps they will take him in. I cannot understand this indifference. This is, after all, about ordinary decency. About certain moral and social principles. It is as if someone had said that this man was unnecessary, so let us get rid of him,” recounts the lawyer, shaken by what he heard from the social welfare employee.

We sent an inquiry to GOPS in Warta Bolesławiecka asking on what grounds an intervention team removed a sober 77-year-old homeless man from the shelter. We are still waiting for a response.