M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT 49 resources in fleeing the country rather than in accommodation. Furthermore, he had waited until 18 December 2009 before declaring that he was homeless. Had he followed the instructions in the notification of 18 June 2009 and gone to the Attica police headquarters earlier to let them know he had nowhere to stay, the authorities could have taken steps to find him accommodation. The Government pointed out that the words “no known place of residence” that appeared on the notification he was given simply meant that he had not informed the authorities of his address. 241. Once the authorities had been informed of the applicant’s situation, the necessary steps had been taken and he had now been found a place in a hostel. The authorities had been unable to inform the applicant of this, however, as he had left no address where they could contact him. In addition, since June 2009 the applicant had had a “pink card” that entitled him to work, vocational training, accommodation and medical care, and which had been renewed twice. 242. The Government argued that in such circumstances it was up to the applicant to come forward and show an interest in improving his lot. Instead, however, everything he had done in Greece indicated that he had no wish to stay there. 243. In any event, the Greek Government submitted that to find in favour of the applicant would be contrary to the provisions of the Convention, none of which guaranteed the right to accommodation or to political asylum. To rule otherwise would open the doors to countless similar applications from homeless persons and place an undue positive obligation on the States in terms of welfare policy. The Government pointed out that the Court itself had stated that “[w]hile it is clearly desirable that every human being have a place where he or she can live in dignity and which he or she can call home, there are unfortunately in the Contracting States many persons who have no home. Whether the State provides funds to enable everyone to have a home is a matter for political not judicial decision” (see Chapman v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 27238/95, § 99, ECHR 2001-I). B. Observations of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the UNHCR, the AIRE Centre and Amnesty International, third-party interveners 244. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that in comparison with the number of asylum applications lodged in Greece each year, the country’s reception capacity – which in February 2010 he said amounted to 11 reception centres with a total of 741 places – was clearly insufficient. He said that the material situation of asylum-seekers was very difficult and mentioned the makeshift camp at Patras which, until July 2009, had housed around 3,000 people, mainly