The article reveals the organization of the state aid to homeless and neglected children in the Ukrainian SSR of the 1920s. It is proved that the main task of the authorities of the USSR and the regulations adopted by them in the social sphere at the beginning of the studied period was the urgent assistance to children who spent most of their time in the street. The resolution “On measures to fight children’s neglect” was aimed primarily at ensuring the legal protection of children who had a family, but were deprived of the parental care. Regulations passed during the famine of 1921-1923 introduced the initiative to place such individuals into the families with the purpose of the individual patronage and teens’ employment. These activities met two main needs of homeless and neglected children - the material support and the adult supervision. The most common form of the assistance to the homeless and neglected was internment. Owing to the consolidation of the legal basis for the collective patronage of enterprises and firms over children’s institutions, the possibilities of state bodies to create new orphanages and maintain existing ones were expanded.