The total number of homeless people in Ukraine may range from 57,000 to 121,000, and this indicator significantly differs from the official data of the state, which constitute only about 1/5 to 1/10 of the actual number of homeless individuals, which according to the Ministry of Social Policy stood at 12,451 people as of January 1, 2026, according to the results of a study conducted by the Depaul Ukraine charitable foundation in cooperation with the Rating sociological group and the Institute of Demography and presented during the Right to a Dignified Life conference on overcoming the homelessness crisis in Ukraine in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to the survey, the number of homeless people in Kyiv is six times higher than recorded in administrative data, in Odesa—two times higher, and in Kharkiv—25 times higher. At the same time, it is noted that the real number of homeless people may be significantly higher, as the study showed there is a category of individuals who do not visit facilities for the homeless and, accordingly, are difficult to reach for research. Also, as a result of the full-scale invasion, the number of homeless people increased significantly. According to expert estimates, the total number of homeless people in Ukraine today may exceed one million.
Experts name orphanhood as one of the common causes of homelessness—children who grew up in orphanages and were not prepared for integration into society after leaving them become homeless.
Imprisonment is named by experts as another common cause of homelessness. According to them, during their stay in places of deprivation of liberty, prisoners may lose their housing, in particular due to family conflicts.
Family conflicts are another common cause of homelessness. Experts cite cases of divorce, as a result of which a husband leaves the home to his wife and children and becomes homeless, conflict disputes with children who have become adults and due to the conflict do not wish to live with a father or mother, and situations of dividing residential property after the death of parents, when brothers or sisters may register all the property under their own names. A portion of people become homeless due to employment problems, including job loss: in the event that they do not own housing, the lack of work leads to an inability to pay rent.
In addition, people with addiction frequently become homeless, developing it because they cannot cope with difficult life circumstances. Such addictions often worsen other problems: family conflicts, maladaptation to the labor market, a tendency to trust fraudsters, etc.
The full-scale invasion contributes to the emergence of new categories of homeless people—among internally displaced persons (common reasons include high rent prices in western Ukraine and poor command of the Ukrainian language) and veterans (a common reason is difficulties with resocialization).
Experts note that state legislation regarding work with the homeless formally appears well-developed, but suffers from significant gaps, in particular because tender documentation for the procurement of social services is often borrowed from support programs for other vulnerable categories of the population and mechanically transferred to the homeless without taking their specifics into account. The result is programs that formally exist but do not meet the real needs of this category.
Among the difficulties faced by the homeless, experts name the absence or loss of documents, while the need to restore documents is connected with restoring access to basic services that the homeless can receive: from medical services to employment services at Employment Centers, receiving social payments, including pensions, etc. The problem of the absence of documents is complicated by the stigmatization of homeless individuals.
The study was conducted on April 1-30, in particular, the expert survey on April 14-15.
