Homelessness

Most Ukrainians surveyed recognize people experiencing homelessness as equal members of society, and many respond to them with compassion and practical help. Yet powerful stereotypes remain: homelessness is still widely associated with addiction, unwillingness to work, criminality, and personal choice. The study reveals a society caught between solidarity and stigma.

Homelessness is not only the loss of a dwelling. It can also mean separation from family, weakened friendships, the disappearance of trusted support, and the painful feeling that no one would notice if another crisis occurred. The Ukrainian study shows that rebuilding relationships and creating new communities can be as important as providing material assistance.

Seven out of ten Ukrainians surveyed associate homelessness with addiction. Yet most people experiencing homelessness in the study reported never having had an alcohol or drug dependency. The evidence reveals a more complex relationship in which addiction may precede housing loss, develop after it, or become intertwined with trauma, isolation, and prolonged life without a home.

Eight out of ten Ukrainians surveyed believe that most people experiencing homelessness could work if they truly wanted to. Yet the report tells a more complicated story—one of previous employment, poor health, missing documents, discrimination, exploitation, and a labor system poorly adapted to people trying to rebuild their lives without a stable home.

Homelessness damages health, while poor health makes escaping homelessness more difficult. In Ukraine, the loss of identity documents can tighten this cycle further, blocking access to medical care, social benefits, employment, and housing precisely when a person needs them most.

Emergency shelters save lives. But when people remain in them for months or years because no permanent housing is available, a temporary response can become a form of prolonged insecurity. The study reveals a system that protects people from the street without consistently providing a path toward a home.

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.

In wartime Ukraine, homelessness does not begin only with the destruction of a building. It can emerge through displacement, unemployment, unaffordable rent, family separation, disability, trauma, or the difficult return from military service. The report shows how war turns existing vulnerabilities into pathways toward losing a home.

Homelessness is often imagined as sleeping on a sidewalk. In wartime Ukraine, however, the reality is far broader: people may be living in shelters, abandoned buildings, temporary rooms, or the homes of relatives without possessing a safe and stable place of their own.