A MODEL FOR CREATING TEMPORARY HOUSING FOR MARIUPOL RESIDENTS IS A PART OF MARIUPOL REBORN PLAN
“The Right to Housing in Ukraine” Forum was held in Kyiv at the initiative of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). As part of the Mariupol Reborn project, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko presented a model for transforming abandoned dormitories owned by educational institutions into comfortable temporary housing for Mariupol IDPs.
The organizer of “The Right to Housing in Ukraine” Forum is a non-governmental Norwegian humanitarian organization that has been operating in 25 countries, including Ukraine since 2014. The main topics of the event include the formation of the principles of state housing policy, tools for public participation in the realization of the right to housing and international support for mechanisms to provide housing for Ukrainians whose homes were affected by the war.
The Mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, took part in the panel discussion "Implementation of mechanisms and projects in the field of housing policy on the ground". After all, the lack of housing is the most painful problem of Mariupol residents who evacuated to the government-controlled territory. The team of the Mariupol City Council launched a project to create social housing, and on April 27, 2023, the first pilot dormitory for Mariupol residents appeared in Dnipro. This project consolidated the state, international partners, and business. One of the partners was Rinat Akhmetov's SCM company. 127 Mariupol residents received keys to their homes, mostly women and children. Those who needed this help immediately.
As early as 2016, Mariupol began to acquire expertise in helping internally displaced persons. Back then, 120 thousand new Mariupol residents came to our city. That is how we called the displaced persons. At the time, we could not even imagine that six years later this experience would be needed in relation to the people of Mariupol themselves. But it so happened that the enemy deliberately destroyed our city. More than 200 thousand people left the city. At least 120,000 of them are now on the government-controlled territory of Ukraine. That is why I am very grateful to the Ukrainian government for supporting the dormitory transformation project
Later, Vadym Boichenko's team chose a convenient model for transforming abandoned dormitories on the balance sheet of educational institutions into comfortable temporary housing for Mariupol IDPs. The transparent model of cooperation with international partners has provided its benefits - it is full trust between all parties. The city submits an order for social housing for Mariupol residents amnd provides technical and visual requirements. The donor independently selects the contractor, who, in turn, conducts tender procedures, selects the contractor and controls financial issues.
Right now, two more dormitories in Dnipro are undergoing renovation, funded by France. And the International Organization for Migration is carrying out the technical and visual design. Thus, in 2024, almost a thousand more Mariupol residents will receive temporary housing. Thanks to the support of local authorities in other cities of Ukraine, there are five more buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Kropyvnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi that can be converted into social housing.
Reference. The Mariupol Reborn project is being implemented by the Mariupol City Council with the investment support of Rinat Akhmetov's SCM and international donors.
