Kyiv, 16 February 2024 – Today, the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), six regional state administrations and twelve municipalities have signed memorandums on cooperation that will enable affordable housing for displaced and war-affected people. The Housing project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Development Bank (KfW), envisages the construction of up to 2,000 flats for approximately 6,000 people in Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia regions. The accommodation will become available to internally displaced and vulnerable local populations through an affordable rent mechanism that will be developed and established within the project. 

The municipalities participating in the project were selected based on the share of IDPs to the local population, availability of sites for construction, employment opportunities and accessibility of social infrastructure among the other criteria. These are Khotyn and Chertivtsi in Chernivtsi region, Kolomyia in Ivano-Frankivsk region, Irpin and Horenka in Kyiv region, Ahronomichne, Ladyzhyn and Khmilnyk in Vinnytsia region,  Staryi Sambir, Drohobych and Kamianka-Buzka in Lviv region. The last two also host people displaced from Sievierodonetsk which also signed a memorandum for understanding to implement the housing project.   

The Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories will provide general project coordination. 

“Providing housing for internally displaced persons is a long-term priority for the Government. Hundreds of thousands of families have lost their homes. This is a big challenge,” said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk. “We are grateful to the Government of Germany for their continuous support, and to the International Organization for Migration that launched the housing project for displaced persons in Ukraine even before  the full-scale invasion.”  

“According to the latest IOM data, one-fifth of internally displaced persons plans to stay and integrate in their current location. Finding durable solutions to accommodation challenges is key to the success,” said IOM Ukraine’s Chief of Mission, Alessia Schiavon. “The legal and technical provisions piloted in the course of affordable rental housing project can lay the groundwork for further large-scale international assistance projects in the field of housing policy in Ukraine,” she added.

Background info:  

Following the 24 February 2022 Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, IOM had to restructure its housing project that was launched with funding from Germany in 2020 and initially envisaged construction of residential buildings in Kramatorsk and Sievierodonetsk. Since 2022, within the revamped initiative IOM has started preparatory works that include the design and, in the case of Kyiv region, demining procedures.  All the municipalities participating in the project were sensitized to international best practices of municipal housing and passed training on managing the income from the rent for the benefit of their communities.