Homelessness in Ukraine in Wartime: Assessment of the Situation and Public Attitudes is a major analytical study conducted by Depaul Ukraine, in partnership with the Sociological Group “Rating” and the Mykhailo Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Quality of Life Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The research received financial support from the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD). Depaul Ukraine is part of the international Depaul Group and has worked with people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Ukraine for nearly two decades.

The study combines several complementary forms of research conducted in April 2026. It includes face-to-face interviews with 1,090 people using homelessness services in Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Lviv; a detailed survey of 250 people experiencing homelessness; in-depth interviews with 10 representatives of organizations providing assistance; and a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,200 Ukrainian adults. It also uses the European ETHOS Light framework, which recognizes that homelessness includes not only living on the street, but also staying in shelters, temporary accommodations, non-conventional dwellings, or temporarily with relatives or friends because no secure home is available.

Drawing on this extensive evidence, the following series explores twelve different dimensions of homelessness in wartime Ukraine—from its largely hidden scale and its causes to health, employment, public prejudice, housing solutions, and the need for systemic change. Together, the posts seek to make visible the people behind the statistics and to encourage an informed, compassionate, and effective response.

We invite all members of the Vincentian Family to learn more about the homelessness crisis created and intensified by the war in Ukraine, to discover how Vincentian organizations are responding, and to engage more deeply with the findings of this study—either through these twelve summaries or by reading the full report.

You can read or download the full report by clicking here (in English).

There is no single “typical” homeless person in wartime Ukraine. The people identified in the study include displaced families, older adults, people with disabilities, veterans, former prisoners, workers who lost their livelihoods, and women whose housing insecurity may remain largely hidden.

Beyond the Familiar Stereotype

Public images of homelessness often reduce a complex reality to a single figure: an older man sleeping outdoors, perhaps assumed to be unemployed, isolated, or struggling with addiction.

The report Homelessness in Ukraine in Wartime: Assessment of the Situation and Public Attitudes confirms that middle-aged and older men form a significant part of Ukraine’s homeless population. But it also demonstrates why no single image can adequately represent the people experiencing homelessness during the war.

Some have lived without permanent housing for years. Others recently fled destroyed or occupied communities. Some sleep in shelters, while others stay temporarily with relatives or survive in abandoned buildings. Some have disabilities or serious medical needs. Others are veterans attempting to return to civilian life.

They differ in age, education, health, employment history, family circumstances, and the events that caused them to lose their homes. What they share is not a particular personality or way of life, but the absence of secure and permanent housing.

What the Survey Can—and Cannot—Tell Us

The detailed survey included 250 adults experiencing homelessness who sought assistance at service centers or food distribution points in Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Lviv. A broader assessment of the scale of homelessness reached 1,090 service users in the same cities.

These findings offer valuable information about the people who come into contact with shelters, assistance centers, and food programs. However, they do not provide a complete demographic portrait of everyone experiencing homelessness in Ukraine.

People who avoid services entirely are less likely to be represented. This may include those living in hidden or remote locations, people temporarily staying with acquaintances, individuals who distrust institutions, and those who do not know what assistance is available.

Experts interviewed for the report stressed that the absence of systematic records makes it impossible to construct a fully reliable national profile. The findings should therefore be understood as a detailed view of the population reached through services, rather than a complete census of homelessness throughout Ukraine.

Even with this limitation, the research reveals important patterns—and challenges many widely held assumptions.

Men Remain the Majority

Men accounted for 69 percent of the respondents in the detailed survey, while women represented 31 percent.

Experts working with homeless populations similarly reported that men have traditionally formed the majority of those seeking assistance. Several estimated that women historically represented between approximately one-fifth and one-third of the people they encountered.

There are many possible reasons for this imbalance. Men may have weaker family support networks after divorce, imprisonment, unemployment, or prolonged separation from relatives. Social expectations may also make them less likely to seek help before a housing crisis becomes severe.

Yet the lower number of women should not be interpreted as evidence that women are largely protected from homelessness.

Women may experience it differently and less visibly. They are more likely to stay temporarily with relatives, acquaintances, or partners rather than enter a shelter or sleep openly on the street. In the study, 31 percent of women reported staying with friends or relatives, compared with 13 percent of men. Men, by contrast, were considerably more likely to sleep in shelters.

Such arrangements may offer temporary protection, but they can also create dependence and expose women to exploitation, abuse, or sudden eviction. Their housing insecurity may remain hidden until every informal option has been exhausted.

The Growing Visibility of Women

The war appears to be changing the gender profile of homelessness.

Experts reported that the number of women approaching assistance services has grown more rapidly since the full-scale invasion. At the same time, some men of military age may avoid centers because they fear contact with mobilization authorities. Both factors can influence the proportion of men and women recorded by services.

The broader city survey found that women made up 43 percent of service users assessed in Kyiv, 44 percent in Odesa, and 38 percent in Kharkiv. Among visitors to the two participating facilities in Lviv, they represented 27 percent.

The age profiles of women also differed considerably between cities. In Kyiv, women aged 50–59 formed the largest group. In Odesa, homelessness among women was strongly concentrated in older age groups, with women aged 70 or above representing 22 percent. In Kharkiv, by contrast, nearly one-third of the women reached were under 40, perhaps reflecting the city’s intense exposure to war and displacement.

These differences show that women experiencing homelessness cannot be treated as one uniform category. A young displaced woman, an older widow living alone, and a woman dependent on an unsafe relationship may all require very different forms of assistance.

A Crisis of Middle and Older Age

The detailed survey found that homelessness in Ukraine is strongly concentrated among middle-aged and older adults.

People aged 41–59 represented 46 percent of respondents, while a further 39 percent were aged 60 or older. Only 14 percent were under 40.

Experts described the average service user as being around 50 years old. Many are in an especially difficult economic position: too young to receive a pension, but unable to find work because of declining health, disability, discrimination, or prolonged absence from the labor market.

For those who have reached retirement age, a pension may still be insufficient to secure housing. Others have difficulty proving their employment history, replacing identity documents, or completing the administrative procedures necessary to receive benefits.

Older people also face greater risks once homelessness begins. Reduced mobility, chronic illness, poor eyesight, pain, and difficulty caring for themselves can make street life especially dangerous. They may need accessible housing, home care, medication, or even palliative support—not simply a bed in a general shelter.

The report found that older people living alone represented 28 percent of respondents, making them one of the three largest vulnerable groups identified by the survey.

Homelessness among older adults is therefore not only a housing issue. It is also a crisis of health care, social protection, and human isolation.

Internally Displaced People: The Largest Vulnerable Group

Internally displaced people made up 40 percent of the homeless respondents, the largest vulnerable group in the detailed survey.

Many had lost their homes through military action or occupation. Others initially found temporary accommodation but later became homeless because savings ran out, employment proved difficult to obtain, or rental prices were beyond their reach.

Displaced people may arrive in a new city with documents, professional experience, family relationships, and the expectation that their situation will be temporary. Over time, however, these resources can weaken. A short-term stay with relatives ends. Personal belongings are lost. Health deteriorates. Temporary work disappears.

This means that someone who became homeless because of a missile strike or occupation may eventually become indistinguishable, in the eyes of the public, from a person who has lived on the street for many years.

Experts described this as a blurring of the boundary between “new” and “traditional” homelessness. The distinction is important because the visible condition of a person rarely reveals the events that led there.

A worn coat, an unwashed appearance, or missing documents do not explain whether the person recently fled Kharkiv, lost an apartment through fraud, left prison without accommodation, or has survived years without a permanent home.

Disability and Serious Health Needs

One-third of respondents—33 percent—were people with disabilities. Many others reported chronic health problems even if they did not have formal disability status.

Experts described increasing numbers of people arriving at shelters with reduced mobility, the effects of strokes, musculoskeletal conditions, untreated injuries, frostbite, and other illnesses aggravated by life without suitable housing.

Some service centers are therefore receiving people whose needs go far beyond the traditional functions of a shelter. They may require nursing care, accessible bathrooms, assistance with dressing and personal hygiene, regular medication, rehabilitation, or palliative support.

Yet many facilities lack appropriate infrastructure and medically trained staff.

The report found that 59 percent of respondents considered their health poor or very poor. Women evaluated their health especially negatively: 69 percent reported poor health, compared with 54 percent of men. Among people with disabilities, more than two-thirds rated their health negatively.

Disability may contribute to the loss of housing by making employment more difficult. Once a person becomes homeless, however, unsuitable living conditions can worsen the disability, creating another destructive cycle.

Veterans: An Emerging and Urgent Concern

Veterans represented 6 percent of respondents in the detailed survey. This figure may appear relatively modest, but experts repeatedly emphasized that the number of veterans approaching homelessness services is growing.

Some veterans return to damaged or occupied homes. Others face unemployment, physical injuries, psychological trauma, family conflict, or difficulties readjusting to civilian life. A person may temporarily stay with friends or former comrades before reaching a shelter, meaning that the problem can remain hidden for months.

Veterans may also hesitate to identify themselves as homeless or ask for assistance. Pride, shame, distrust, and the expectation that they should be able to manage independently can delay contact with services.

Their needs often require coordinated support: permanent housing, medical rehabilitation, psychological care, employment assistance, restoration of family relationships, and help navigating public benefits.

The report’s warning should therefore be taken seriously. Ukraine has an opportunity to prevent veteran homelessness from becoming entrenched, but only if housing and reintegration assistance are provided before temporary instability develops into long-term exclusion.

People Leaving Prisons and Institutions

Former prisoners accounted for 10 percent of the respondents. Among them, 28 percent said their main housing problem was having nowhere to go after release.

Leaving prison without accommodation, documents, employment, or supportive relationships creates an immediate risk of homelessness. The same is true for some people leaving children’s homes, psychiatric hospitals, and other institutions.

Care leavers—people who had grown up in orphanages or residential care—represented 4 percent of respondents. Individuals with chronic mental health conditions accounted for 5 percent, while foreign nationals or stateless people represented 2 percent.

These categories may overlap. A former prisoner may also have a disability. An internally displaced person may be an older adult living alone. A veteran may have a serious injury and no family support.

The percentages should not therefore be added together as though they describe separate populations. They reveal layers of vulnerability that often accumulate within the same person’s life.

A successful response must address those overlapping needs rather than assigning people to a single administrative label.

People With Work Histories and Education

Homelessness is sometimes associated with the belief that people have never worked, studied, or participated in ordinary community life.

The report presents a very different picture.

Among respondents who were currently without paid employment, 95 percent said they had worked in the past. Their previous employment had often ended years earlier, but the overwhelming majority had participated in the labor market before becoming homeless.

Educational backgrounds also varied. Forty-two percent had completed general secondary education, 30 percent had vocational secondary qualifications, and 16 percent held a higher education qualification.

A person in a shelter may once have been a construction worker, teacher, driver, factory employee, caregiver, technician, shop assistant, or public servant. Homelessness does not erase that history, even when prolonged exclusion makes it difficult for others to see.

These findings matter because stereotypes can shape the assistance that is offered. When people are assumed to lack skills or motivation, institutions may provide only food and emergency shelter rather than creating routes back into employment and permanent housing.

Parents, Partners, and Broken Connections

People experiencing homelessness are often imagined as having no family. In reality, 56 percent of respondents had children. Among those with children, 54 percent said they maintained a positive relationship with them, while 43 percent did not.

At the same time, 76 percent of all respondents were not currently in a relationship. Among the minority who had a spouse or steady partner, almost half said that their partner also lacked permanent housing.

Connections with the wider family were often weaker. Sixty-two percent did not maintain positive contact with other relatives.

These findings reveal the complexity of family life during homelessness. Some people remain emotionally close to their children but cannot live with them. Others have lost contact after years of conflict, separation, imprisonment, displacement, or shame. Some families want to help but lack enough space or money. Others may themselves be displaced or living abroad.

Restoring family relationships can be important, but it must not be treated as a simple substitute for public responsibility. Not every family relationship is safe, and not every relative has the resources to provide housing.

People need the possibility of rebuilding supportive connections while also having access to a secure home of their own.

Long-Term Homelessness Shapes the Population We See

A striking 63 percent of respondents had been without permanent housing for more than two years. Another 17 percent had experienced homelessness for between six months and two years, while 20 percent had been homeless for less than six months.

This means that the population encountered in shelters and service centers is heavily shaped by long-term homelessness.

The longer someone remains without a home, the more likely it is that health will deteriorate, documents will be lost, employment connections will weaken, and relationships will become strained. A person who initially required short-term housing assistance may eventually need intensive medical, psychological, legal, and social support.

The apparent “profile” of homelessness is therefore partly created by the failure to intervene early.

When people are housed quickly, they may never develop the visible characteristics society associates with homelessness. When they remain in emergency conditions for years, the effects of exclusion gradually become part of how others perceive them.

The stereotype is then used to blame the person, even though the system helped produce the condition being judged.

No One Is Only a Category

The report provides percentages because public policy needs evidence. Services must understand how many older adults, displaced people, women, veterans, and people with disabilities require assistance.

But statistics also carry a danger: they can replace one stereotype with a collection of administrative categories.

A person may be counted as an internally displaced person, a veteran, a former prisoner, or someone with a disability. Yet none of these labels fully describes a human life.

For the Vincentian Family, this distinction is essential. Vincentian service begins not with an abstract “homeless population,” but with an encounter: a particular person with a name, a history, relationships, abilities, wounds, and hopes.

The study’s most important demographic lesson is not that homelessness has one recognizable face. It is that it has many faces—and that any person can disappear behind a stereotype.

Understanding who is experiencing homelessness in Ukraine should therefore lead not to classification alone, but to a more personal and flexible response. Older adults need care adapted to age and health. Women need safe forms of accommodation. Displaced people need help rebuilding stability. Veterans require sustained reintegration. People leaving institutions need housing before discharge.

Each pathway is different. Each life remains unique. And every person, regardless of how long he or she has been without a home, retains the same dignity and the same right to belong within society.

Image © DePaul Group.