Introduction:
Tuberculosis (TB) is still an important and serious health problem of the XXI century. A group of people that are particularly at risk are the homeless and the poor.

Objective:
The main objective of this paper was the assessment of knowledge regarding TB of the poor from soup kitchens, homeless emergency shelter, hostels, in the Katowice city.

Material and Methods:
The examination covered 175 individuals (69.7% men and 30.3% women) and was conducted in February 2011 in six institutions which are involved in helping the homeless and those who are in a difficult financial situation. Questionnaire was completed by qualified for the examination subjects on their current life conditions and knowledge regarding TB. Statistical analysis was based on statistical programme Statistica 8.0. assuming that the level of statistical significance was p=0.05.

Results:
The majority of the examined individuals were in their early 60’s (68.0%), homeless (66.9%), unemployed (54.9%) with preliminary and vocational background. From TB suffered 8,0%. Most of the subjects (96.6%) were aware of this disease and the main information sources on TB have came from families (43.2%) and friends (45.6%). Mostly the characteristic symptoms of tuberculosis and the risk factors were defined correctly. In the prophylactic research and the educational programme did not participate 82,3% of subjects.

Conclusions:
The subjects’ basic knowledge is fairly good, however the more detailed and accurate questions were asked, the more difficult it was for them to answer. There is a significant shortage of health programmes, which aim at prevention and education of the interested parties.