Vasyl Zhygalyuk arrived in Kyiv last summer from Ivano-Frankivsk to work in construction, hoping soon to be able to pay off his abundant debt.
But three months into the job, he was kicked out of work and onto the streets, unpaid.
On Jan. 31, the soft-spoken 32-year-old wandered into a heated tent set up to help the vulnerable – in particular the homeless – through a cold snap that has already claimed the lives of at least 63 people.
Health Ministry officials say that most of these are those living on the streets.
Kyiv’s homeless population is around 12,000. During the freezing temperatures of winter, those without a home are forced to do daily battle with the elements in an effort to stay warm.
“They often choose the top floors of buildings, basements, insulated pipes, areas around manholes and train and bus stations,” said Oleksandr Vasylenko, a rescuer from the Emergency Situations Ministry.
With temperatures plunging to as low as minus 28 C, authorities set up over 2,000 heated tents across the country to offer people a place to warm up and have a hot drink.
There are 10 heated tents in Kyiv, one in each district. Equipped with wooden tables, powerful gas-fired heaters and medical supplies, the tents provide a dependable respite from the cold.
For only Hr 4, people can stay overnight in a room with 16-20 beds or in a social hotel with three to five beds for Hr 12.
Simple but hearty food, such as porridge, salo (pig lard), bread, onions, biscuits and hot tea, is offered to anyone in need. The homeless also have a chance to sift through bags of donated clothing supplied by the Red Cross.
Emergency attendants, trained in first aid, rotate in 12 hour shifts, helping to alleviate hunger and cold day and night. “If anybody needs moral encouragement we are also ready to provide it,” said Vasylenko, the rescuer and tent attendant.
Officials say over 40,000 people have used the tents since Jan. 27.
When a Kyiv Post reporter visited two tents for several hours on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, they were surprisingly empty. Workers said they were serving around 10 visitors per day, not all of whom were homeless.
On the sign-in sheet were students, pensioners, and even random passers-by. On one occasion, according to Vasylenko, there came a man who simply wanted to stay in the tent overnight to escape his nagging wife.
Zhygalyuk from Ivano-Frankivsk heard about the tent at the train station from the Social Partnership Fund, which partners with the Emergency Situations Ministry to help the homeless.
“We did active outreach by putting up flyers and announcements about the shelters in places where homeless gather,” said the charity’s president, Artem Makeev. The tents are located in parks, often out of obvious sight.
Critics say the tents are a haphazard reaction to a problem that needs a more systematic approach.
“The tents are only for show that authorities are doing something,” said Pavlo Rozenko, an expert on social policy with the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center. “In Soviet times, the homeless were considered criminals and alcoholics. Unfortunately, Ukrainian authorities inherited this mentality.”
We did active outreach by putting up flyers and announcements about the shelters in places where homeless gather
– Artem Makeev, charity’s president
Makeev said the government should develop an efficient and strategic social welfare system that would provide help to the homeless consistently, and not only in winter.
Charity workers say most of the help for the homeless is not institutionalized by the government and is mostly concentrated in the hands of charity and religious organizations.
In addition to supplying heated tents with food, the Social Partnership charity delivers food to 12 locations around Kyiv at specific times daily, feeding around 1,500.
Nearly 300 homeless and low-income individuals come to a center run by the charity every day to get a warm meal and a shower, and clothing or a haircut when needed, Makeev said. There are also legal services to help the homeless get stolen documents restored or obtain government registration.
“While there are places to get food and clothing, a civilized overnight shelter still remains a problem in Ukraine,” Makeev said. The ones that exist lack order and can’t accommodate everyone.
The municipal House of Social Care in Kyiv has room for 150.
For only Hr 4, people can stay overnight in a room with 16-20 beds or in a social hotel with three to five beds for Hr 12. However, many homeless people don’t want to go there, according to Makeev. “Most of the tenants are former inmates, and outsiders tend to have a harder time fitting in,” he said.
There are also more long-term solutions available. Social Partnership enrolls selected homeless people into a reintegration program, where they can volunteer in social projects and even take free computer classes. A similar Center for Social Adaptation for 300 people operates in Yasnogorodka, a village near Kyiv.
Despite these various services, surviving on the streets in winter is hard.
“Before the holidays it was possible to make a little cash at the train station,” said Zhygalyuk, who was occasionally able to find temporary manual jobs paying Hr 100-150 per day, but is now struggling to earn enough to eat.
For the Hr 100 he usually lives on per week, he buys vodka to warm up, but admits that alcohol only creates the illusion of warming up, but instead causes damaging side effects.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mariya Manzhos can be reached at [email protected]
