Sofia Counts Far Fewer Homeless Than Major European Cities, New Census Shows
Jerusalem, 17 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Sofia (BTA) – There are significantly fewer homeless people in Sofia than in major European cities. This was announced today by Deputy Mayor for Social Activities and Integration of People with Disabilities Nadezhda Bacheva and Assoc. Prof. Stoyanka Cherkezova from the Institute for Population and Human Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who presented results of a census of homeless people in Bulgaria, which took place between October 20 and 26.
According to preliminary data, homelessness in Sofia is significantly lower than in large European cities, according to the results of the study, which is part of the international project “European Census of Homelessness”, funded by the European Commission, Deputy Mayor Bacheva announced. According to her, Sofia is the first Bulgarian city to join the initiative. The coordinator of the entire project, which covers 35 cities in Europe, is the University of Leuven (Belgium) in the person of Cohen Hermans.
In Lyon, there are 12 times more homeless people; in Brussels, 11 times; in Budapest, five times; and in Bucharest, three times more than those in Sofia, according to the results of the study, the final data of which will be known in January 2026, announced Deputy Mayor Bacheva.
“Together with the Sofia Municipality, we joined forces to conduct this first-of-its-kind census,” said Assoc. Prof. Cherkezova, who emphasized that it is not just a field census, but also a profiling of people on the streets. A total of 53 field volunteers, including from the Bulgarian Red Cross and the Order of Youth, have been collecting information on how long people have been on the streets, their distribution, their health status, needs, and professions.
The goal is greater adequacy in developing policies for caring for the homeless, Cherzekova explained. She said that according to different methodologies, the homeless can be different categories, such as those living on the street (in garages, abandoned houses, mobile homes). Another group is the homeless, accommodated in crisis centers, where they spend one to three nights. The third category is the homeless in temporary accommodation centers with a longer stay. As part of the homeless census, clothes, shoes, and food were provided.
Bacheva stressed that it is very difficult to help homeless people who do not want help. There is no way to force them to be accommodated in crisis centers or to provide them with support, said the deputy mayor. She announced that three homeless centers with a capacity of over 500 places operate on the territory of the Sofia Municipality, which are 80% full. An exact number of homeless people in Sofia cannot be given, because the data changes daily, she noted.
Bacheva assured that additional beds will be opened if the capacity of the centers are filled, especially during the winter months. From December to March, food and hot tea will be distributed every day to people who need it during the coldest part of the year, she added.
She cited data from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee from two years ago, according to which there are about 200,000 people in Bulgaria without personal documents. Parents do not have documents, children are born without receiving a personal identification number and this multiplies with each subsequent generation, said Bacheva.
In this regard, the deputy mayor said that thanks to changes in the legislation, the Sofia Municipality provides an official address to the homeless so that they can get personal documents.
