Currently, every municipality located outside the territory of hostilities or temporarily occupied areas provides shelter to IDPs. U-LEAD experts have received numerous requests from representatives of local self-government bodies to clarify the mechanisms for organising shelters, using escheat property, as well as creating social dormitories.
"We know that most municipalities find their own ways to provide IDPs with housing. We arranged an informational session, where participants had the opportunity to confirm their actions or adjust them in order to provide assistance to the affected in a legal way, on time and efficiently," said Tetyana Bordyug, Head of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme in Zaporizhzhia.
According to the experts, the creation of social dormitories proves to be an effective solution to provide housing for internally displaced persons. During the session, Vitaliy Shvets, Head of the U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in Vinnytsia Oblast, and Valeriy Mikulich, U-LEAD with Europe Adviser on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government in Zhytomyr Oblast, acquainted the participants with the housing legislative framework, explained the procedure for the creation and functioning of social dormitories in municipalities.
This kind of dormitory is social housing provided to Ukrainian citizens during the period of their social housing registration, on the condition it is their only place of residence, which refers to the housing stock of social purpose without the possibility of privatisation.
The social housing stock can be formed through the construction of new housing, transfer of state social or escheat property to municipal ownership, reconstruction of existing buildings, conversion of non-residential houses, etc.
"A local council resolution and a regulation on a social dormitory are required to grant social status to an ordinary residential property," said Vitaliy Shvets.
When getting accommodation, a person enters into an agreement with the local council, undertakes to comply with the rules of use and pay for utilities.
The speakers answered questions from the participants on how to respond to improper use of the housing by the recipient and the terms of agreement termination. According to them, the agreement can be terminated only at a tenant's initiative. On the owner's side, it takes place in court. However, if the tenant consistently disregards the rules or does not use the accommodation, they should be notified in writing of the violation and initiate the agreement termination.
Note that social dormitories as places of IDPs' compact settlement have proved to be more effective than modular towns. This opinion was expressed by Iryna Vereshchuk, Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, during the United News telethon. There are currently 25 modular towns in Ukraine, housing approximately 5,000 IDPs. Currently, the number of Ukrainians in social housing needs reaches 4.8 million.