As WBJ went to press, the Polish police had reported 81 deaths due to hypothermia since January 27, when temperatures dropped to as low as -30 degrees Celsius. The death toll makes Poland among the worst-hit nations in a deep freeze that has killed over 400 people across Europe.

Police and NGOs believe most of the victims in Poland have been homeless, often people under the influence of alcohol. With this in mind, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has asked local authorities to temporarily waive the ban on admitting intoxicated people into homeless shelters.

According to Julia Wygnańska, a researcher at the European Federation of National Organizations working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), these deaths are proof that Poland’s system for dealing with homelessness is ineffective.

“Currently support for the homeless includes covering basic needs and implementing emergency measures during the winter. Looking at the number of people who have died, this is not enough and it doesn’t work.”

Zofia Popiołek, an MP from the Palikot’s Movement party, told Gazeta Wyborcza in January that the zł.5 million allocated in this year’s budget for addressing homelessness was laughable. But according to researchers and NGOs, the government’s entire strategy for tackling homelessness, geared principally towards emergency services, is problematic.

“Of course shelters are the first thing needed in winter, and all hostels and community houses are currently full, but we have to change the government policy, because the system is very passive,” said Dagmara Szlandrowicz, representative at the Barka Foundation, an NGO working with homelessness in Poland, but also with Poles sleeping rough in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.

“We don’t have a comprehensive support system that allows people to get out of homelessness, we lack prevention, and we lack cooperation between offices in the government responsible for welfare and housing policy,” said Ms Wygnańska.

Researchers and NGOs agree that a major cause of homelessness in Poland is a lack of affordable housing, which has become an even bigger problem as a result of the economic crisis in Europe.

“People who run the shelters say more and more people are homeless. And the number of people on the verge of homelessness, those who are able to pay their rent but cannot pay for anything else, is also growing,” said Ms Wygnańska.

There is no official estimate of the number of homeless people in Poland. The European Social watch report 2010 put the figure at anywhere between 30,000 to 200,000.

Why so cold?

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the sudden drop in temperatures observed all over Europe from late January originates in Eastern Russia and Siberia, with the Siberian high pressure system preventing milder temperatures from moving from the Atlantic eastwards over Europe.

This has caused very low temperatures in Eastern, Central and Western Europe, and heavy snow over Southern Europe and North Africa, as cold air from the north met with moist air from the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, mild air has moved to the Arctic, causing unusually warm temperatures there and in North America. The WMO calls this a “negative Arctic Oscillation.”

According to the WMO, “the long duration of the cold period [in Europe], its relatively late onset and the extent of the cold area are noteworthy but not exceptional.”