Government pledges more homeless shelters

The government has decided to extend the opening hours of homeless shelters and create 130 additional places, Prime Minister’s Office chief Gergely Gulyás said at his regular weekly press conference on Thursday.

The government has also decided to close down 9 subways for the night “for reasons of public sanitation” and “to ensure proper living conditions” for homeless people, Gulyás said, adding that Budapest Mayor István Tarlós had been consulted when making those decisions.

On another subject, Gulyás said that the government was planning to ensure free textbooks to each child in primary and secondary schools from next September on.

He added that programme would cost a total of 14 billion forints (EUR 42m).