Imagine turning 18 and receiving just one thing: freedom. No home, no family, no one to turn to. This is exactly what happens every year to hundreds of young people in Bulgaria who have grown up in institutional care — in children’s homes, family-type centres or foster families. At 18, they are told “congratulations” and the door is shut.
How many are there?
Currently, around 2,970 children and young people are placed in residential care — family-type centres, sheltered accommodation and transitional housing. Nearly 3,800 children are being raised by relatives or close friends, and around 1,500 live in foster families.[1] According to data from the Ministry of Social Affairs, 450 children left these centres in 2024 alone.[2] In the same year, nearly 500 new children were abandoned in residential care centres.[2]
No plan, no policy
In Bulgaria, there is no state policy regarding young people leaving institutional care. The only provision is for the drafting of a leaving plan, which in practice amounts to a meeting between a social worker and the young person to fill in a form.[3]
In other words — one conversation and one sheet of paper. After that — on their own.
Every year around the time of the school-leavers’ balls, discussions revolve around the question of whether these young people are prepared for life. And every year the answer is the same — they are not prepared.[4]
Where do they live?
Most have no home to return to. Transitional housing offers temporary shelter – for up to two years – during which young people can try to find work and complete their education. However, according to government data, only 86 young people across the whole country were placed in such transitional accommodation last year.[2] All the rest are on their own.
Many return to their biological parents, even when it is precisely those parents who are the reason they grew up in an institution. Not out of love — but because they have no other choice.
An official definition of homelessness in Bulgaria was only introduced in 2018, and homeless young people remain virtually invisible to government policies.[5]
Education — a luxury few can afford
Continuing education after the age of 18 is the exception, not the rule. These young people are identified as a high-risk group in terms of dropping out of school and entering the labour market.[4] When your main concern is a roof over your head and food for tomorrow, university seems an unattainable dream.
The state offers relaxed admission criteria, but without housing, financial or family support, few manage to stay on even when they are accepted.
Helping parents who did not raise them
One of the most painful and rarely discussed phenomena is this: a significant proportion of young people who have left care financially support their biological parents — the very people whose inability or unwillingness to care for them caused all this in the first place. They take out loans, work two jobs, send money. Not because they are naive. But because they have a family that is looking for them — and they cannot resist the feeling of being needed by someone.
Crossroads: prostitution or a bakery
“A very small proportion of young people manage on their own. It’s simply not possible. This is the crossroads where a young person decides — shall I turn to prostitution, or shall I work in a bakery? Shall I pawn my belongings, shall I steal?” says Teodora Koleva from the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion.[2]
In almost all analytical reports relating to violence, addiction, prostitution and human trafficking, young people leaving state care are identified as one of the groups most at risk.[4] When you grow up without a model for a safe relationship, without the ability to recognise manipulation, without a network of people you can rely on — you become easy prey.
The institutional culture has largely carried over into the new services — children continue to be treated as outsiders, lacking social skills and unprepared for life after leaving state care.[4]
Every year in Bulgaria, around 5,000 children are investigated for crimes, and around 200 are placed in secure institutions.[6] Children who have grown up without family care and without support after the age of 18 are among those at highest risk.
There are also success stories
Not all stories end badly. Vulko is one of the young people who spent years in institutional care and found his way after a transitional home. He is now 30 years old. “I have a job, I have my own home, I have two wonderful little girls — twins — and I have a wife,” he says.[2] Stories like his, however, are the exception — and are only possible when there is real support after the age of 18.
What needs to change
Progress in deinstitutionalisation has been impressive — between 2000 and 2017, Bulgaria reduced the number of children in institutions by over 75%.[7] But the country has not built a bridge to independent living.
What is needed are: supported housing after the age of 18, mentoring programmes, financial literacy, psychological support and — above all — people these young people can call when things go wrong.
Because the question is not just whether the system has ‘raised’ them. The question is whether it has prepared them for life.
Sources
Horata.org / UNICEF Bulgaria — The transition of children out of care is nearing its end. Are we ready for the next stage?, November 2025. horata.org
bTV News — From the home for children without parents: What happens to them when they turn 18?, January 2025. btvnovinite.bg
Better Care Network — Bulgaria: Child Care System Profile. bettercarenetwork.org
Know-how Centre, NBU — On young people about to leave institutional care and the policy towards them, February 2021. knowhowcentre.nbu.bg
European Social Policy Network / European Commission — National strategies to fight homelessness and housing exclusion: Bulgaria. ec.europa.eu
UNICEF Bulgaria — The situation of children in Bulgaria. unicef.org/bulgaria
National Network for Children — Over 2.7 million children worldwide live in care homes. nmd.bg