On March 26, the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” organized an open meeting of the Kyiv IDP Council at the Osvitoria Hub. The event was attended by representatives of the IDP Councils, local authorities and specialized NGOs, MPs of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets and Şeref Malkoç, Chief Ombudsman of the Republic of Turkey, as well as representatives of central executive authorities. We gathered more than 200 participants to discuss the possibilities of providing housing for internally displaced persons and IDPs living in Kyiv.
The participants agreed that the problem of providing housing for internally displaced persons is becoming increasingly urgent for both the government and the communities hosting them. This problem requires the development of new policies in the shortest term.
“I have traveled to many regions of Ukraine, and as a rule, there is always a regional program created at the regional level; housing support programs with financial resources are adopted. Has this been done in all regions of Ukraine? No. I was surprised to see that no such program exists in Kyiv, despite the capital being home to more than 400,000 internally displaced persons,” said Mr. Lubinets.
A number of important developments in housing policy were presented at the meeting:
- Olha Altunina, Head of the Council for Internally Displaced Persons under the Kyiv City Military Administration, presented the results of a survey of internally displaced persons in Kyiv, highlighting their key needs;
- Borys Rabotnik, Director of the Department of Construction and Housing of the Executive Body of the Kyiv City Council, spoke about the implementation of housing programs in 2023 and plans for 2024;
- Anton Krasov, Social Housing Coordinator at CF SSS, presented the results of a study of housing programs in Kyiv, including programs of social housing for IDPs.
The presentation of the research was followed by a panel discussion with representatives of the Kyiv authorities, the State Property Fund of Ukraine, the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, and the Right to Protection Charity Foundation on the possibilities of providing housing for IDPs in Kyiv, and a Q&A session. Such events raise awareness of the existing problems in the social protection sector and initiate the development of new solutions to overcome the social and demographic crisis caused by the war.
The study of housing programs in Kyiv is available here: http://surl.li/rzcgl
The event was held with the financial support of the United Nations Refugee Agency in Ukraine (UNHCR Ukraine). The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” and do not necessarily represent the views of the Agency.
