THE FIFTH WINTER
Five years. Five Houses. Fifty-one places where you can spend the winter — if we manage to pay the bills.
The fifth winter
This is our fifth winter. We want to approach it prepared.
We are leading Four Houses of Saint Lazarus for men and Saint Rita's Flower Nook for women. A total of 51 places for people emerging from the homelessness crisis.
The fact that our Residents are not sleeping today in complete darkness is primarily due to by their merit: sobriety, work, shifts, hundreds of ordinary days in which it was difficult and they did not give up.
The house provides the conditions for this. For most of the year, it is simply a home—a place to return from work. In winter it becomes something more: it has to be warm inside so that the rest of it makes sense.
In winter, bills rise and there is no escape from that. In a few days, we turn on the heating in five Houses at the same time — and we usually keep the heat on until April. The days are short, so the light stays on longer. Clothes need to be dried, water needs to be heated, and it has to be warm in the House — because a person who is just getting back on their feet cannot recover in the cold.
All five Houses we rent. We pay for utilities and media ourselves, from donations from Donors and from the partial participation of Residents in the costs. Over five years of operation we did not receive a single zloty of subsidies.
We need PLN 120,000 by November 29th — for utilities and media bills during the heating season, for all five houses. Below we show where exactly this amount came from.
This date is not coincidental. On November 29, the Foundation celebrates five years of existence. We want to reach these birthdays with a bill paid in the winter, not with a pile of unpaid invoices. That’s 60 days and 2,000 PLN per day.
Five years. From one window to five Houses.
It started in 2018, not under that name yet. „One window for the poorest” — a place where a person without an address could get everything done at once, instead of going from office to office. This grew into the first St. Lazarus House.
On November 29, 2021, it was created Fundacja Dobro się Niesie. One House and the assumption that the Resident will be with us for no more than a year and a half.
Life quickly showed that getting out of the homelessness crisis takes more time than our regulations allowed. So we changed the rules, not the people. Today, Mieszkaniec stays as long as he needs — and some of them will stay with us for the rest of their lives.
Today there are five of them — Four Houses of Saint Lazarus for men and Saint Rita's Flower Nook for women. Fifty-one places. Five years without a single zloty of funding.
Over these five years, we have gone through four winters. We paid for each of them thanks to the people who believed it was worth it — and there were more of them every winter. At the fifth hour, we ask for help in advance so that the bills are paid before the frost sets in for good.
The most beautiful birthday present we can get is a paid heating bill. No cake, no flowers, no speeches.
Why are we collecting money for bills in particular?
Because this is the part of our work that is hardest to talk about—and the easiest to overlook.
Therapy, work and self-sufficiency are all well spoken of. The bill for gas — not so much. And it is this that determines whether the House can even stand open.
The heating bill cannot be postponed to spring. It cannot be spread out in installments until we have collected the money. It cannot also be used to heat three Houses instead of five and pretend that that is enough.
That is why we are speaking about it directly, instead of hiding the facts in more pleasant words. Heat costs money. And someone has to pay for them so that all fifty-one seats can survive this winter.
Five years without subsidies
We submitted applications to the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy. We did not receive any help, even though our offers were flawless.
Our Homes do not have the status of training apartments. We do not limit the stay in time and do not require mandatory progress towards independence. The resident stays as long as they need to. Sometimes half a year. Sometimes four years. Sometimes forever.
We have a strict no-alcohol policy. We do not accept anyone under the influence of alcohol, and anyone who violates this policy may only return after undergoing therapy in the addiction treatment ward. But he has somewhere to go — and there is no deadline by which the doors close for good.
That's how much it costs. In the end.
These are not estimates or „average market prices.” These are our invoices for three media, for five houses.
🏠 Czynsze
Five rented houses
28 600 PLN
monthly
Throughout the heating season
over PLN 170,000
The bet for today — from January it may increase
🔥 Gas
All of 2025
38 363.78 PLN
2026, January–August
42 496.44 PLN
Potrzebujemy ok.
55 000 PLN
⚡ Current
All of 2025
16 731.46 PLN
2026, January–September
12 541.09 PLN
Potrzebujemy ok.
18–20 000 PLN
🚿 Water
All of 2025
35 273.93 PLN
2026, January–September
26 170.31 PLN
Potrzebujemy ok.
37–40 000 PLN
We spent 4,132 PLN more on gas alone over the eight months compared to the entire previous year. — and we haven’t even turned on the heating yet. The most expensive months are just ahead of us.
The only things we pay for are media — gas, electricity and water. od 110 do 115 tysięcy złotych. The actions are separate. 28 600 PLN per month, That is over PLN 170,000 for the heating season alone. And that’s not counting the waste disposal costs.
We're not pretending that we calculated this collection down to the penny. We don’t know exactly how much we will pay for media this winter, and the fees from January could go up.
120,000 PLN is intended to support what our dedicated donors have been doing all year long. — help get through the months when bills are the highest.
All amounts come from the Foundation's invoices and relate to the five houses in total.
What the Residents Say
My family consists of Foundation employees and Donors. Because they still believe in me…
The House of Saint Lazarus is a brake for me.
What changes in the House when winter arrives
Nothing big. It's just that everything costs more.
🔥 We turn on the heating
In a few days, depending on the weather — and then usually until April — in five houses at the same time. This is the biggest position on the winter bills.
💡 The light stays on longer
It gets dark after 15:00. In the morning it's still night. The electricity bill just keeps growing by itself.
🚿 More hot water
The residents return from work frozen. They need to dry their clothes; there is more laundry to do.
🚐 More trips to people
In winter, there are the most interventions. The frost doesn’t ask if we have the space or if we can afford the fuel.
Homelessness doesn't take a vacation.
Get to know Grzegorz
Grzegorz has been living with us for over four years.
He ended up at the House of Saint Lazarus after eight weeks of therapy in the addiction treatment ward. He came all the way from Trójmiasto, where he slept on the street and begged under the church.
Today he leads a normal life. He goes to work. He cooks lunches. He is a master chef — that is his hobby. We created a workshop in the garage next to the house for him.
After two years of abstinence, he went to his daughter to give her a Christmas wish. Unfortunately—the wounds were too many—she knocked at the door and begged for his forgiveness. Grzegorz broke his abstinence.
But he came back. The next two years he was sober. He came to terms with the past and with the fact that the House of Saint Lazarus had become his only home.
„My family consists of the Foundation’s employees and Donors. Because they still believe in me…”
Grzegorz doesn’t need big things from us. He needs a warm room where he can return after work — even when it’s minus ten outside. That’s what we’re paying for with this collection.
What exactly is your deposit going towards?
-
🏠
Fees for five houses — PLN 28,600 per monthWe rent everything out. The rent comes every month, regardless of the time of year.
-
🔥
Heating of five houses — approx. 55,000 PLNThe most expensive item of the season, and at the same time the one without which the House ceases to be a home
-
⚡
Electric energy — PLN 18–20,000Light, water heating, washing machines, kitchens, clothes drying — in winter there is more of all of this.
-
🚿
Water and sewage — PLN 37–40,000Five Houses and the Daily Life of Fifty-One Places: Washing, Laundry, Cooking
-
🗑️
Export of wasteFixed fee, regardless of how much donations were received in a given month
Transparency: każdy z tych wydatków mamy udokumentowany. Jako Darczyńca otrzymasz raport po zakończonej zbiórce. Co roku publikujemy też pełne rozliczenie — see the report for 2025.
To whom are you giving a warm home?
Not a shelter. Not a bed and breakfast. Houses — real ones, with a community.
Streetworking and interventions
We find people in empty rooms, on stairwells, under tents. In winter — most often.
Department of Addiction Treatment
Eight-week inpatient therapy at the National Health Fund, to which we refer patients.
The Foundation's House
Austerity, work, learning good habits, shifts, volunteering — all together, like in a family.
Self-reliance
The first self-rented apartment — at your own expense. And for those who don't become independent — the House remains forever.
What we want to avoid
We do not want to face a choice in the winter that no aid organization should have to face: pay the bill or take in another person from the street.
Unpaid invoices do not disappear; they turn into debt, and debt into a decision we don’t want to make — about which House to keep and which one to leave.
But that doesn’t have to happen. There are 60 days left until our fifth birthday — and you can decide what we’ll do with them.
Every payment — big or small — is a piece of the bill we won’t have to put off. And a night someone spends in warmth instead of on the stairs.
🔄 If you want to help for longer — Klub Dobra
The collection ends on November 29, but the winter season continues — and the bills keep coming every month. That’s why the most valuable support for us is the monthly donations. You decide the amount. Thanks to regular donors, we can plan ahead and say to the Resident: „You’ll stay here for as long as you need.”.
Join the Good Club →💛 Thank you to our Donors
Together we are going through the fifth winter
| Donor | Amount | Data | Town |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angelina Wróblewska | 100.00 PLN | 09-10-2026 | Poznan |
| Iza Za | 120.00 zł | 08-10-2026 | Schifflange |
| Anonymous Donor | 120.00 zł | 06-10-2026 | Trzemeszno |
| Mirosław Kwiatek | 120.00 zł | 04-10-2026 | Milicz |
| Anonymous Donor | 20.00 zł | 03-10-2026 | Kielce |
| Anna Górska | 55.00 PLN | 03-10-2026 | Dry Forest |
| Karolina Sakowska-Witkowsak | 55.00 PLN | 03-10-2026 | Warsaw |
| Anonymous Donor | 120.00 zł | 02-10-2026 | What's new |
| Anonymous Donor | 50.00 PLN | 02-10-2026 | Lipno |
| Aga Chęcińska | 200.00 PLN | 02-10-2026 | Poznan |
| Anonymous Donor | 55.00 PLN | 01-10-2026 | Warsaw |
| Monika Kurek | 55.00 PLN | 01-10-2026 | Old Town |
| Anonymous Donor | 1,000.00 PLN | 01-10-2026 | Poznan |
| Anonymous Donor | 120.00 zł | 01-10-2026 | Trzemeszno |
Questions? Want to visit us? Business cooperation?
Maciej Białka, President of the Dobro się Niesie Foundation
📞 508 633 850 · ✉ maciej@dobrosieniesie.pl
Fundacja Dobro się Niesie · ul. Kołłątaja 84, 61-421 Poznań
KRS 0000935117 · NIP 783 184 68 55 · REGON 520 550 324
Account: PKO BP 45 1020 4027 0000 1902 1708 8736 (title: „Donation — THE FIFTH WINTER")
Polski 
English 
Deutsch