Therapy Center for Dependent Individuals

The Athens municipality on Wednesday opened the capital's first halfway house for homeless people who are addicted to drugs or other substances.

The typical profile of individuals who sought treatment at the Therapy Center for Dependent Individuals' (KETHEA) units last year was Greek, male, aged 31 and suffering from a drug addiction for more than 10 years.

"We are so much at the mercy of Chance that Chance herself… takes the place of God," Pliny the Elder wrote 2,000 years ago. In difficult times, people's need for stability and consolation grows, as does the need to inform them of the dangers of addiction to games of chance and to substances - legal or not.

A man aged between 40 and 45 years old fell to his death from the fourth floor of a homeless shelter in central Athens on Friday morning.

Authorities said they suspect that the homeless man, who was not named, killed himself. Homelessness has been on the rise during the crisis. It is estimated there are some 30,000 homeless people in Greece.

The number of drug addicts living on the streets of the capital has doubled since the beginning of the country’s economic crisis, according to research by the Therapy Center for Dependent Individuals (KETHEA).

Of the addicts approached by members of KETHEA’s street team, 44.4 percent said they were homeless, up from 35.2 percent last year and 24.5 percent in 2010.