Homelessness in Lithuania:

An outline of the situation

For FEANTSA – September 2003

Written by
ŽIVILĖ URBIENĖ, sociologist, manager of Caritas Lithuania
DRASUTE ZARONAITE, social worker, deputy director of Caritas
Lithuania

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 Introduction

Lithuania is a small Baltic country with 3.482.3 thousands inhabitants. In 1990

Lithuanian citizens decisively declared their will to build an independent state and to create
society, based on the values of freedom, democracy and justice. People were prepared to
overcome the negative inheritance of the Soviet totalitarian society and the transitional
struggles.
Unfortunately, social processes are proceeding more quickly than people’s
values, attitudes, patterns and life skills are changing. People are experiencing difficulties in
changing their life style and adjusting themselves to the new social and economical
environment, which requires more personal responsibility. Majority of the today’s Lithuanian
society problems are emerging because of the changing valuable relation between person and
state: previous soviet state domination is alternated by the personal preferences (I.Zaleskiene,
2002).
On the one part, in democratic society individual has to charge himself with
responsibility for choosing of the lifestyle and solution of the problems, on the other part
state’s task is to help individuals to implement their choices and to warrant equal human
rights and possibilities. Lithuanian Constitution guaranties equal rights to every citizen, but at
the moment it is not able to warrant conditions to take advantage of all the rights. People can
freely use their political and civil rights, but still there are difficulties with warranting of equal
social and economical rights (right to get a job, minimal income, housing, health care and
pension) to every citizen.
Today Lithuania is preparing to join EU and promptly implements various
socio-economical reforms, such as decentralization, privatization, industrial restructuring and
market economy, not always baring in mind the interests of the most vulnerable groups of
society. This process goes along with the rapid polarization of the society: new proprietary
class is formed, new businessman, self-employers, professionals, unskilled workers,
unemployed, beggars and homeless are turning out. At this juncture preconditions for the
development of social exclusion are formed. Social exclusion is a complex multidimensional

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phenomenon that implicates insufficiency of income, education, health care, housing and
social services.
In Soviet system social exclusion was determined by the ideological, legal and
political factors: the problem of poverty was ignored, homeless or begging individuals –
criminalized as a vagrants, orphans, disabled or mentally ill – putted into the institutional care.
There were no reliable facts about the poverty – many years society was provided only with
the strained information. Poverty was treated as an infamy which needs to be hidden. That
presupposed today’s negative attitude of the Lithuanian society towards the marginal groups.
Mass media also forms rather unfavorable image of the homeless and uphold negative
stereotypes about the homeless, including such most popular statements as “all homeless are
lazy and refuse to work”, “most are alcoholics”, “most are involved in criminal activities”,
“begging is a very profitable activity”, etc. However society becomes more and more aware
of the problems of poverty, social exclusion and the homelessness in particular.

Number of homeless

To measure the number of homeless in Lithuania is not easy not only because of
the lack of studies, but also due to the problems of the definition and methodology.
In Lithuania the homeless are not officially defined. The dictionary of the
Ministry of Social Affairs gives only a very short and limited definition: “homeless - a person
that don’t have dwelling”. During the population census conducted in Lithuania in 2001, the
more precise definition of homeless was developed: “the homeless are persons who do not
have any permanent dwelling and finances to rent or to purchase housing” (Statistics
Lithuania, 2001).
According to this definition, the census of 2001 registered 1250 homeless people
in Lithuania (i.e. 0,004% of the total population). Homeless were registered in random places,
sewerages, dumps, heat tracks. The highest numbers of homeless were registered in biggest
cities: in Vilnius – 254, Kaunas – 105, Klaipėda – 209 and near the biggest dumping place in

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Kariotiškės – 106. It is evident, that homelessness in Lithuania same as in other countries,
primarily is a problem of urban areas where communities and social relations are weaker.

Most studies show that single homeless adults are more likely to be male than
female. Census data found that men comprised 75,2% (940 persons from the 1250) of the
homeless population and women 24,8% (310 persons).
Majority of homeless are 46-50 years old. Children from 1 to 15 years old
consisted 2,72% (34 persons) of the whole homeless population, youth from 16 to 20 years
old consisted 2,64% (33 persons).
The educational background of homeless is varying: 4% pointed that they have
higher education, 10% - college level, special secondary education, 41% - secondary and 4%
of homeless didn’t indicated the education.
Census data found that the homeless population mostly is comprised of 70%
Lithuanians, 13% Russians, 10% Polish and 7% - other nationalities.
People, temporary living in the shelters, were registered as residents of
institutions. During the census more than 600 persons were living in the shelters (Statistic
Lithuania, 2001).
Though homelessness is impossible to measure with absolute accuracy,
registration of the homeless could be implemented using different methods. One method is to
count all the people who are homeless on a given day (point-in-time counts), another – to
count the number of people who are homeless over a given period of time (period prevalence
counts). That is why other Lithuanian researchers give different counts of homeless.
Many homeless people were not registered as homeless in any survey as they
were living with the relatives or friends in crowded, temporarily arrangements although they
actually were in a homeless situation. People in these situations are experiencing
homelessness but are less likely to be counted. The hidden homelessness also exists: those,
who are incarcerated or temporary living in the psychiatric institutions and different pensions.
According to the official statistics, by now there are 21 night shelters and 1 one
pension for mother and child in Lithuania. The demand for shelter beds in constantly growing
that indicates the increase of homelessness in Lithuania too.

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 Causes of homelessness

In 2002 characteristic feature of Lithuanian socio-economical development was

that despite the fast grow of economy, the social situation and life standard have not been
raised. Although the macro economical indexes testify the growing economy, the real
monthly earning declined in 2%, real pension – 0.3%, minimal living standard - 2%, real
income – 2.7%. Simultaneously average consumption expenditures have raised in 1.7% and
differentiation of living standards have been significantly increased (Social Report, 2002).
Among the risk groups of social exclusion in Lithuania the most vulnerable are
the long term unemployed, ex-prisoners, mentally and physically disabled, one parent
families, large families with more than three children, people raised by state in institutional
care, not educated and elderly people. Many individuals who become homeless have multiple
problems associated with unemployment, family, alcoholism, physical and mental health
problems, conviction or institutional care.
Homelessness and poverty are inseparably linked. People with minimal income
are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, health care and other necessities of life. Poor
are forced to choose between the main demands, because their limited resources can cover
only some of them. Often they decide not to pay the high utility costs, that after some time
leads to the various penalties and finally – eviction and lost of dwelling. In 2001 about 16.4%
were living below poverty limits. From this number, families raising preschool age children
and families with more than three children comprised more than 30% (Social Report, 2002).
Unemployment is one of the topical social issues in Lithuania. The rate of
unemployment is ranging from 6.4% to 26.7% in different areas. The average unemployment
rate in 2002 was 11.8%. The long term unemployment consisted 30% of all unemployed
population. The percentage of unemployment females made up 48.1% (Statistic Lithuania,
2002). Unemployment benefits were paid to 22.1 thousands or 10.7% of unemployed. The
minimum unemployment benefit is from 135 to maximum 250 Litas (39 to 72 Eur).

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 Majority of unemployed are people of the middle age with the low professional
skills and insufficient education and that places them in a very difficult situation in a Labor
exchange. More effective professional reorientation and education programs could prevent

homelessness by helping people obtain jobs with higher wages and benefits. Unemployment
benefits are paid to the small part of unemployed and cannot suffice the minimal living
demands, including housing. Thus unemployment perforce generates homelessness.
The number of ex-prisoners in Lithuania is constantly growing. According to the
data of municipalities, main problems of ex-prisoners are difficulties in finding job (98.1%),
lack of livable income (96.2%), lack of dwelling (66%). Between provided social services
housing consisted only 8%, placement - 7% (Social Report, 2002). Thus the social
reintegration of ex-prisoners becomes one of the most topic social issues in Lithuania in
preventing the homelessness.

Housing

During the Soviet time majority of the housing stock was possessed by the state.
In the restored independent Lithuania the state and municipalities have privatized much of
their housing stock. In 2002 about 97% of total stock of dwellings belongs to the private
owners, public and municipality ownership constituted only about 3% (Statistic Lithuania,
2002). Therefore there is a considerable lack of public housing in Lithuania.
Public and municipality dwellings wear and become unsuitable for living as a
result of improper maintenance and operation. The emergency stock of dwellings (private
ownership excluded) totaled 105.3 thous.m2 and the number of dwellers in them was about 6.4
thousands (Statistic Lithuania, 2002). Many public buildings need to be renovated and
modernized in order to reduce high utility costs.
Despite the great number of private home owners, many of them are facing great
financial problems related to a very high utility and maintenance costs. Retaining of the home
ownership requires a lot of efforts and absorbs a great part of the income. According to the
statistical data, in 2002 average monthly disposable income (in cash) per capita in urban areas
totaled 427,5 Litas (123,81 Eur) and the average household monthly consumption expenditure

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per capita in urban areas consisted 427,1 Litas (123,69 Eur) (Statistic Lithuania, 2002). That
influences the quality of the housing, life quality and life satisfaction. State support for the
covering the high utility heating and water costs are very limited: only a small number of

people from the vulnerable groups of society (pensioners, disabled, families etc) receive state
allowances.
Young families and families with a low-income confront with difficulties to find
the appropriate dwelling. Presently the gap between the rapidly growing prices of land, houses
and rent and average income is constantly expanding. For people struggling to pay the rent,
serious illness or disability can cause the lost of the job, depletion of savings, eventual
eviction or selling of a dwelling to pay for the not recoverable expensive medicine and finally
– homelessness. People willing to rent dwellings find difficult to convince the landlord to sign
a contract – without contract they are always unsure when they will be told to move out.
State support in providing inhabitants with dwelling is insufficient and limits by
two forms of assistance: allocating favorable credits and renting dwellings from
municipalities. Pursuant to the law on providing inhabitants with dwellings, the inhabitants
who need the support are queued up in three queues. The first includes inhabitants having the
right for the state support and willing to provide themselves with dwellings; the second queue
includes socially supported families and the third - young families.
In 2001 only 3427 families were supported by the state in providing them with
dwellings that totaled 3.3% of families, included into the lists of municipalities for state
support. Out of them 73.7% got favorable credits, 26.3% got municipal dwellings to rent.
According to the law on Repatriation of Deportees and political prisoners, state
accommodated 78 families (that constituted 8.2% of all families, willing to repatriate).
In Poverty Reduction Strategy, prepared in 2001 by Lithuanian Government,
homelessness is nor marked out as special social problem, however due to its nature
homelessness can’t be successfully tackled without specific measures only by applying of
ordinary measures of poverty reduction.

Work with homeless

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 According to the data of the survey “Lithuanian NGO’s and poverty eradication
policy”, elaborated by the NGO’s Informational and Support Centre, the majority (73%) of
NGO representatives surveyed perceives poverty, first of all, as a jobless situation; more than

a half (54.6%) of the respondents characterized poverty as trampling on the human essence,
42.8% of the respondents answered that poverty means having no dwelling. 62.5% of all
NGO participating in the survey presently contribute to poverty reduction in Lithuania
(NGO’s and Poverty Reduction Policy).
The report on NGO’s activities in Kaunas region shows that 38,6% of NGO’s
are acting in the field of education and the 39,8% - in the social sphere (I.Matonytė,
A.Zdanevičius, 2002). About 70% of people, working in a social sphere are volunteers.
The budgets of social organizations are very miserable; state allocated means
consist only about 12% of the budget, funds from municipalities - 8%. Many services
provided by NGO’s, such as preventative programs, soup kitchens, temporary shelters have
no stable funds allocated. They are working on the project basis, without any reliance about
the future (I.Matonytė, A.Zdanevičius, 2002).
Although NGO’s are contributing to the poverty reduction, they work is not as
effective as it could be due to the several reasons. The relationship between state and NGO’s
is not clearly defined: there is no systemic legally claimed attitude towards involving of the
nongovernmental organization into the decision making process, funding of the NGO’s
activity and projects from the budget subsidies. It is a very severe problem under the
conditions of the integration into EU as the possibility to use the means of EU structural funds
increases in the well functioning environment.
The specific approaches towards NGO’s that are subsistent to the state sector:
they would like to solve complicate social problems only by the forces of NGO, but not
actually draw NGO into the decision making process, not to subside NGO activities enough
from the state budget ((I.Matonytė, A.Zdanevičius, 2002). These faulty approaches also
prejudice the cooperation between state and NGO.
Though many NGO’s are working in a social sphere, not many of them are
working with homeless in particular: 12 municipalities have night shelters, Sodality of St.John
is working with the street children, all the diocesan Caritas structures provide the services of

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shelterization, soup kitchens, clothes and medical supply and help with arranging the
documents, Samarian Association distributes food. All other NGO propose mostly various

kinds of preventative programs. Outreach (street work) is carried out only by very few
organizations.
Presently the transitional housing is provided in 18 (34%) municipalities from
the number of 53. There are 21 night shelters are ran in 12 municipalities. Most cities lack
enough shelter beds to meet the demand; not all the homeless are accepted to stay overnight in
the municipality shelters – they need to have passports and medical documents about the
health state. While helpful, “shelterization” is not an effective policy to deal with the issue, if
they are not in connection with the social services and job training.
Although the health problems are very typical to the homeless, there is no
established system of the health care for the homeless in Lithuania. Hospitals except homeless
and keep them for few weeks in the case of very serious health problem. Homeless do not
have documents and social security, so usually they don’t receive full medical assistance as
there is no doctor office working exclusively for the homeless. Only one clinic in Kaunas city,
established by Caritas, accepts the homeless for the provision of medical assistance in cases of
emergency. If some homeless patients are given the prescriptions for medication, they cannot
afford to buy it. In this case they can receive the medication from the charitable Caritas
dispensary.
Very acute problem is the lack of the homeless prevention. There are some
services for families with no or minimal income, some help for ex-prisoners in order to
reintegrate them back into the society, but they cannot always provide needful thorough
complex help.
Nowadays Caritas activities are changing from the stereotypical “charity” based
on the distribution of the clothing and food towards rendering of social assistance to the most
vulnerable groups of society. Caritas is one of nongovernmental organizations that have
successfully initiated many innovative social projects, such as Children's Welfare Centre
Pastogė for children in crisis situations; Kaunas Generations' Home - the first program of its
kind in Europe that offers hosting for young women and their babies and for the old and

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lonely people in the same building; Vilnius House for Mother and Child - temporary shelter
for young mothers and their children; Critical Pregnancy Center providing psychological and
social support to pregnant teenagers in crisis situations.

Presently Caritas implements several complex programs, which among different

social services also provide housing or gives financial support to find a dwelling:
Protecting the Dignity of Children in Lithuania - this project provides all-round support to
socially disadvantaged families.
Rehabilitation and Care of Prisoners – program offers possibility to live in ex-prisoners
community.
Assistance to the Victims of Human Trafficking and Prostitution – program provides spiritual,
social and legal help and shelter as well as minimal material support to the victims of
prostitution and human trafficking.
Support to the Disabled – preventative program, that includes counseling on housing,
arrangement of the needful documents.
Innovative social programs of Caritas, aimed at the provision of complex social
assistance, including social housing, ensuring of livable incomes, professional education and
placement, still has to be claimed and disseminated.
These kinds of social activities yet are not enough recognized and supported in
Lithuania. Now reform of the provision of social services is implemented and the new law on
Social services regarding activities for people with problems is prepared. Hopefully, this law
will help NGO’s to organize their work insomuch as they could get more state support and
develop their activities more effectively.
Another urgent problem in Lithuania is the lack of effective representation of the
interests of the poor and lobbying in favor of risk groups. Qualitative analysis of the NGO’s
activities indicates that the tendency to render social services and tendency to represent the
interests are inversely proportional. This means the more services are provided to the certain
social group, the less their interests are represented.

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 Conclusions
Until now, the phenomena of homelessness in Lithuania are not expatiated: there
is no appropriate definition that is considered to be homeless; there is a lack of statistical data
and full-scale surveys of the problem. The need of systemic survey of the homelessness and
the poverty is evident for the provision of comprehensive, systematically collected data that
could road a map for successful policies to deal with the homelessness.
Although according to the data of the survey “Lithuanian NGO’s and poverty
eradication policy”, can be stated that NGO representatives acknowledge poverty as
sufficiently relevant to Lithuania today and many of them are contributing into the poverty
reduction, complex social services for the homeless still have to be developed and established.
Homelessness include multiple specter of the problems, associated with employment, health,
education, addiction, conviction, fostering in institutional care, violence in family and
psychological problems.
Strengthening of the public policies addressing homelessness at all relevant
levels of policy making – local, regional, national and European has a crucial importance. As
well as the cooperation of national and international NGO’s that are working in the field of
homelessness that could help to strengthen EU strategy in the field of poverty and housing
exclusion. Sharing of experience and search for the best examples of best practices in fighting
homelessness would be important in improvement of social services.
A good instrument in reducing poverty and social exclusion would be the
development and implementation the social policies, based of the principles of social
economy: strengthening of local communities, creation of social cooperatives, social
enterprises and building of social houses. Few significant attempts towards this were recently
maid in the academic world: last year was established the Institute of Social Economy at
Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, there are social economy section in the Institute of
Social Research in Vilnius. These institutions not only execute research and evaluate the

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situation, but also raise public awareness by organizing of different conferences, round tables
and gives insights to the development of social welfare system.

Homelessness is a most serious form of social exclusion, that only can be tackle
by the joint efforts of government and NGO’s to develop decent public policy, complex
decisions and institutional cooperation.

References:
1. Economic and Social development in Lithuania. January –April, 2002. (2002). Statistics
Lithuania, Vilnius.
2. NGO’s and Poverty Reduction Policy. Non-governmental organizations Information and
Support Centre. Vilnius. http://www.nisc.lt
3. Matonytė I., Zdanevičius A. Problems of the civil society. Case study: nongovernmental
organizations in Kaunas region. (2002). //Public policy studies 2002/2/3. Centre of public
policy studies.
4. Poverty Reduction Strategy. Implementation program for the year 2002-2004. (2002).
Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor, Vilnius. http://socmin.lt
5. Social report 2001. (2002). Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor, Vilnius.
6. Zaleskiene I. Individual, society and state. Social exclusion. (1998). //Report about the
human social development in Lithuania. UN development program, Group of social policy.
Vilnius.

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