As of early 2025, there are 4,622,761 registered internally displaced persons in Ukraine. All of them were forced to leave their homes and relocate to safer regions due to the full-scale war.
One of the primary needs of IDPs in their new communities is housing. To address this, the state and local authorities have introduced various support policies. Our legal team examined the effectiveness of these measures.
Throughout 2024, we analyzed local and national programs and policies related to IDPs’ housing rights in 54 target communities across 18 oblasts: Vinnytska, Volynska, Dnipropetrovska, Zhytomyrska, Zakarpatska, Ivano-Frankivska, Kyivska, Kirovohradska, Lvivska, Odeska, Poltavska, Rivnenska, Sumska, Ternopilska, Khmelnytska, Cherkaska, Chernihivska, and Chernivetska.
Activities we undertook:
- Analyzed housing programs in the target communities;
- Assessed their accessibility for IDPs;
- Examined key challenges IDPs and local authorities face in securing housing.
Based on our findings, we developed recommendations to improve housing policies.
All research reports are available at this link.
Anton Krasov, the project coordinator for social housing, shares more about the results of the research.
Anton Krasov, Project Coordinator for Social Housing:
“Housing for IDPs in a specific community should be based on their actual needs.”
Why is it important to determine the real need of IDPs for housing and housing rights support programs?
In most communities, IDPs’ housing needs are generally not analyzed. Local self-government officials often lack awareness of the importance of need assessments and their practical application. The belief that knowing the number of IDPs in a community is enough to understand their housing needs is a myth.
Assessing needs is the starting point for effective policymaking in any field. Providing housing for displaced persons in a specific community should be based not on abstract data on IDPs registered there but on real needs. A proper needs assessment allows policymakers to see the actual people behind the numbers—people with their own interests, plans, and possibilities.
Let’s consider two examples. The first displaced person is Dmytro, 28 years old, with no children — remaining in a community for a few weeks and staying with his acquaintances. He works remotely and plans to move to another oblast. The second displaced person is Oleksandra, 71 years old, who has a disability, and mobility issues, lives at a Collective Center with her children and grandchildren, and plans to remain in the community.
Clearly, their housing needs differ, but both want to receive housing.
Some communities have started conducting housing needs surveys, including online surveys. These help better understand the specific needs and plans of IDPs, such as whether they intend to stay in the community temporarily or long-term.
Importantly, since September 2024, under Ministry of Reintegration Order No. 288, IDP needs assessments have become mandatory and must be conducted at least once a year.
What are the key challenges faced by host communities and IDPs?
- Many communities lack an established housing stock. There is no record of those in need of accessing the housing stock designated for the temporary accommodation of internally displaced persons in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 495 of April 29, 2022, “Certain Measures for the Formation of Housing Stock Designated for the Temporary Accommodation of Internally Displaced Persons.” One of the reasons cited by government representatives is the inability to replenish this stock. A flawed logical connection takes effect: why create a stock or maintain records if there is nothing to fill it with?
- Communities generally do not utilize alternative sources to replenish the social housing stock, such as escheated property. There may be several reasons for this: the lengthy process of formalizing escheated property, the poor technical condition of the assets, which require significant capital investments for reconstruction, the lack of funding, or the absence of government recommendations to actively incorporate such properties into the housing stock.
- Some communities lack available land plots.
- Local government representatives and the IDP Council sometimes lack the specialized knowledge and/or motivation to improve housing policy for IDPs.
- The varying levels of capacity and resources among communities result in different capabilities to provide housing for IDPs.
- High unemployment rates and expensive rental prices make it difficult for IDPs to secure decent living conditions on their own. Therefore, communities require support.
- The low level of informational accessibility on websites regarding IDP housing provision undermines its effectiveness. Few community websites contain clearly structured, step-by-step, and user-friendly information on implementing IDP housing rights (such as flowcharts, visual guides, etc.) or specific action algorithms. Information about the work of the IDP Council — its membership, email contacts, protocols, reports, and other relevant details — is often unavailable.
How will such research help communities address the issue of providing housing for IDPs from temporary housing stock or social housing?
Why is this research important for local governments and IDP Councils?
- Housing is the most critical need for IDPs. Therefore, addressing this issue must be a priority for government authorities, including local ones.
- The implementation of most IDP housing rights — housing registration, participation in local programs, temporary accommodation, and long-term residency — takes place at the local level, within territorial communities. This is why the research focuses on communities.
- Local self-government bodies have the authority and resources to adopt local housing support programs for IDPs.
- The IDP Council should assist local authorities in implementing the best strategies for securing housing for IDPs.
- This research enables local self-government bodies to develop targeted housing policies based on the specific needs of IDPs living in communities and helps provide an accurate picture of the situation: challenges, trends, and potential solutions.
- Implementing research recommendations will contribute to making IDP housing policies more effective.
What are the basic recommendations for improving policies on the housing rights of IDPs and other people affected by hostilities?
The final section of the report contains recommendations for improving housing policy for IDPs. Here are some of them:
Adoption of local regulatory acts
- Develop a program for providing housing to IDPs in the territorial community and allocate funding according to available resources and needs.
- Develop a strategy for long-term housing solutions for IDPs with further involvement of international humanitarian organizations.
- Designate a responsible person or unit to coordinate local IDP policy within the community by adopting an appropriate regulatory act.
- Involve representatives of the IDP Council in the development of local regulatory acts that affect the rights and interests of displaced persons.
Housing provision
- Monitor the housing needs of IDPs to better understand how many of them wish to stay in the community temporarily or permanently, as well as the number of persons with disabilities, elderly individuals, or pregnant women.
- Conduct an inventory of housing stock and premises in the community, including those in newly incorporated settlements, that could be repurposed for temporary housing for IDPs or included in the social housing stock for IDPs.
- Create registries of available land plots that may be attractive to potential donors for new housing construction for IDPs.
- Explore alternative sources for expanding the housing stock and develop additional mechanisms for finding housing (purchase, use of abandoned premises, escheated property).
- Allocate funds in the local budget to establish temporary housing stock for internally displaced persons, taking their needs into account.
- Establish cooperation with local branches of the State Fund for the Promotion of Youth Housing Construction and the Fund for Supporting Individual Housing Construction in Rural Areas; consider the possibility of co-financing regional housing loan programs from the local budget.
- Strengthen collaboration with international donors for the reconstruction or construction of social and temporary housing accessible to IDPs.
- Adopt best practices from local authorities in ensuring the housing rights of IDPs.
- Consult the Protection Cluster for information on effective strategies in the field of IDP housing rights.
- Conduct extensive informational and awareness campaigns among IDPs to help them learn more about their housing rights and available local and national housing programs.
- Organize training sessions, lectures, and seminars for local self-government officials responsible for IDP issues, particularly those related to securing housing rights for IDPs who reside permanently in the community.
The research has identified both positive trends and practices, as well as the challenges that communities and IDP Councils must address. Practical educational programs on housing for IDPs, organized for local authorities and IDP Councils, will help overcome these challenges. Experience-sharing within these programs will enhance motivation among communities and expand opportunities for improving housing policies aimed at ensuring the rights of IDPs.
The study of the housing programs was conducted as part of the Supporting the Capacity of the Social Protection System to Register Internally Displaced Persons project, implemented with funding from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine.