Inside Ukraine’s fight against homelessness after three years of bloody war: ‘Peace is hard to imagine’

It’s three years since Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine unprovoked – despite whatever lies Donald Trump tells – but the Russian president has not been able to capture the country or crush defiant efforts to help those made homeless by the war.

Homelessness charity Depaul Ukraine went from supporting people on the streets to helping people who had lost their homes or been displaced by war.

Approximately 3.6 million people in Ukraine have been internally displaced by the conflict, according to the United Nations.

Depaul themselves say 22% of those people who are sleeping rough in the war-torn country have been directly displaced by the violence.

The charity’s CEO Anka Skoryk, speaking to Big Issue in a video call from her car in Ukraine, knows only too well – her home in Kharkiv was destroyed in the early days of the war.

“It really was a shock for me. I had a very small apartment and I saved for many years to have my own house. We built it together with another family,” she told Big Issue.

“I lived there for only one year and one month and I hadn’t seen it. I just got a call and I understood that it was destroyed but I didn’t accept it. I couldn’t accept it because I hadn’t seen it. It was only after six months that I saw it and I was completely shocked.

“But, you know, war has changed the values. It was such a pity, yes, but more important for me was that I was alive. My friends were alive, my neighbours, Depaul staff. We continued our work to support other people. It was more important that I wasn’t focused on this loss.”

Big Issue has covered how Depaul Ukraine’s work has evolved over the last three years as the conflict has raged on.

From supporting people living in underground stations in Kharkiv to volunteers risking their lives to deliver aid over hundreds of miles or helping rebuild homes in more rural villages, it has been a perilous transformation from the mission of fighting homelessness in peace time.

But Depaul’s operations have also had one eye on when that peace may arrive.

The latest project is introducing a new women’s housing project for rough sleepers in March, which Skoryk said she hoped would “be new motivation for them to make changes in their lives”.

As the geopolitical situation is focused on talks to bring a ceasefire – however unlikely as it looks after Trump’s assertion that he would end the conflict on day one of his presidency – Depaul’s eyes are now fixed on prevention.

“Our new projects are focused on preventing homelessness because we provide hostels, case management services, employment support, cash assistance and winter packages,” said Skoryk. “We have a children’s centre because we support people not to become rough sleepers. When they are in difficult life circumstances, it’s very easy to lose hope and to put their hands down.

“Is it challenging to look to prevention when there is so much uncertainty? I can answer both yes and no. We get used to this uncertainty. All our staff members have adapted – human beings are very adaptable.

“So it was very difficult in the very beginning, but now, of course, we are trying to support people here and now, but we also have our strategic plans for the future. We are thinking about our development. Of course, we are hoping for better outcomes, but we still develop new plans.”

Prevention includes building social housing with one eye on the people who have fled the conflict returning.

More than six million refugees have left Ukraine, according to the UN’s Refugee Agency, many of them fleeing to the UK.

Almost 240,000 Ukrainians have applied for visas to stay in the UK after coming here through the various immigration schemes.

Many have faced homelessness – almost 11,000 Ukrainian households who have arrived in England through the Homes for Ukraine scheme or the Ukraine Family Scheme required support from local councils after losing their home.

Should the war end, families who return will come back to a country where the infrastructure is decimated.

A report from the Kyiv School of Economics Institute released, earlier this month, found Russia’s full-scale invasion has caused $170bn (£134bn) of direct damage, including $60bn (£47bn) worth of damage to residential properties

An estimated 236,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, including 209,000 houses, 27,000 high-rise buildings and 600 dormitories.

Depaul Ukraine plans to make the case for social housing once Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy and his government’s focus can shift from the conflict.

• Ukraine’s gig economy workers are now delivering food for a homeless charity
• ‘People feel they don’t have a right to celebrate’: Christmas in a bomb shelter in Ukraine
• Homeless in Ukraine: Former rough sleepers are supporting their shell-shocked compatriots in Kharkiv

“Social housing is one of our strategic areas and we are planning to continue advocacy in this direction because we think that’s very important. After all, we hope that we will have funding from the European Union and Ukraine, and of course, will participate in open calls to support and we hope that afterwards, our government will be more focused on this issue,” said Skoryk. 

“Now they have a lot of different issues to address, and that’s a really slow process, but our government understands that people who have nowhere to live, that’s an issue, and they will address it. We are thinking about returnees.”

But Skoryk remained defiant in the face of growing global unrest around the conflict.

She was speaking to the Big Issue just hours after Trump had attacked Zelenskyy for failing to hold an election after the Ukrainian leader criticised talks between Russia and the US in Germany alongside Saudi Arabia.

The US president branded Zelenskyy a “dictator” and also made the widely condemned assertion that Ukraine “started the war” despite Putin choosing to invade on 24 February three years ago.

Keir Starmer opted to back Zelenskyy after Trump’s comments, describing the Ukrainian as a “democratically elected leader”.

Skoryk placed her thanks to Brits for supporting Ukraine and urged people to continue to back the invaded nation as the conflict continued.

“First of all, I’d like to say how grateful we are to all the people from Britain and from the whole world for their support, moral support, prayers, financial support, weapons from governments. You know this feeling that we were not alone in this war, it made a difference. Thanks to this support from the very first seconds of this war, we stayed strong and we could survive,” she said.

“It’s very important to be on the side of Ukraine. There is a lot of false, fake information around us and I ask all the people not to forget that Ukraine was invaded. We have not started this war. The fact is we are not the aggressors and we defend our lives.”

Despite the global political row, Skoryk has maintained faith that the war is coming to an end.

Even if that means that will be when Depaul Ukraine’s work is just beginning.

“It’s very hard now to believe, of course. We hope that the war ends soon and I’m sure we are much closer to the end than to the beginning of the war,” Skoryk said.

“But we must understand the situation won’t be kind when the war has ended. Everything’s great, everything’s easy, and so on. We will face a lot of challenges.

“In the beginning, we couldn’t believe in the war, that war like that comes to Kharkiv. It’s like we couldn’t imagine the war times. And now it’s hard to imagine what the peaceful time will look like.”

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.