In Lviv, for the autumn and winter period, the “Care Bus” has been launched again for people who have found themselves without a home. On 9 October, the bus went out on its route for the first time this season, with 16 people using it. The initiative is implemented as part of the city programme “With Care for Everyone”.
Every Friday, the bus will depart free of charge from the Powder Tower at 10:00 and take homeless people to the branch for social work with homeless people of the Dzherelo Centre at 3A Kyrylivska Street. This is already the fourth year that the “Care Bus” has been helping people during the cold season.
Passengers are received by a large yellow and black bus with a “With Care for Everyone” sticker. It takes people to a shelter where they can warm up, have a meal, take a shower, receive clean clothes and shoes, as well as social support. The branch offers day and night shelter services, the possibility to wash clothes, get advice from a social worker, and receive help in restoring documents, and finding work or temporary housing.
The Deputy Director of the Dzherelo Centre for Social Services, Andrii Oliiarnyk, explains that the aim of the project is not only to take a person to the shelter, but also to introduce them to the available system of support in the city. Social workers go out onto the streets every week, informing people about the opportunity to use the services of shelters.
This season, the range of support provided through the “Care Bus” has been expanded. Doctors from Lviv’s Second Medical Association are working at Kyrylivska Street: homeless people can receive a consultation with a family doctor, have an electrocardiogram, and undergo rapid tests, including for blood glucose levels. Hairdressers from vocational education institutions are also working on site, providing haircuts free of charge.
According to the Dzherelo branch at 3A Kyrylivska Street, 861 people are currently registered there. In September alone, around 80 homeless people used the night shelter’s services. Since the beginning of the year, almost 700 people have received assistance in various forms, and as of September the social patrol had made 553 visits to locations where people without shelter are staying.
In previous years, under the “With Care for Everyone” initiative, the “Care Bus” transported homeless people and those in difficult circumstances both to the Emmaus-Oselya mutual aid community and to the Dzherelo Centre’s night shelter. During the winter period of 2025, around 220 people used the bus, and in total, over different years, more than two hundred people have received support each season.
The branch for social work with homeless people of the Dzherelo Centre at 3A Kyrylivska Street is the only residential shelter for homeless people in Lviv. It provides day and night shelter, food, hygiene facilities, laundry, clothing and footwear, as well as social support and reintegration activities. Social workers from the centre regularly travel to different parts of the city, offering people on the street hot food, clothing, hygiene products and the opportunity to move into the shelter.
If Lviv residents or visitors to the city notice someone who may be in need of help, they are urged not to remain indifferent and to call the city support services — the Dzherelo contact centre, the city hotline on 15-80, the social service on 16-20, and in cases of danger to life and health — the emergency numbers 103 or 102.
A video about the work of the “Care Bus” can be viewed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/X4G0ReO_qrY?feature=oembed