99 Percent of Participants of the Affordable Housing Programme Trust the Fund – UNHCR
On 23 January, UNHCR Ukraine presented the evaluation report “IDP Participation in the Affordable Housing (50/50) Programme”.
The Fund is the implementer of this programme and IDPs‘ and ATO veterans’ participation was included into it in 2017. They are entitled to get 50 % state subsidy to purchase housing they selected. Other citizens may get 30 % state subsidy to cover the cost of the apartment the participant chose. The financing of this programme constituted UAH 30 mln in 2017 and UAH 100 mln – in 2018. This year the Law of Ukraine on the State Budget foresees the same sum – UAH 100 mln.
In 2018, UNHCR evaluated Affordable Housing Programme from the point of view of IDPs’ households that purchased apartments under the programme in 2017. The basis of the report is online questionnaire of 52 out of 65 IDPs’ families – programme participants in 2017. The regional employees of the Fund were also interviewed. The State Fund for Support of Youth Housing Construction influenced neither the process nor the results of the survey.
The study analyzes territory, demographic, economic and educational profiles of participants of the programme, their access to the Affordable Housing and attitude towards the programme.
In general, only 1% of respondents expressed low level of trust to the Fund, 76% assessed their trust towards the institution being high.
The authors of the study provided clearly formulated conclusions and recommendations concerning further measures for updating and implementation of given programme.
It was stated to significantly increase financing from the State budget to satisfy the demand for participation in the programme.
Igor Chantefort, Senior Development Advisor at UNHCR Ukraine, was moderating the event. Pablo Mateu, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine, mentioned in his welcoming remarks that the problem of housing absence is among primary issues bothering IDPs. He called updated Affordable Housing programme the first national programme giving systemic response to this request of IDPs. That’s why, Mr. Mateu went on, it was important to analyze and assess it to understand strong and weak points to be improved. UNHCR Representative expressed hope that in future the Ukrainian authorities will expand the support of IDPs.
Anita Rohner, Durable Solutions Officer, presented methodology and results of the survey. Other participants of the event shared their thoughts and wishes, namely, Ukrainian MP Nataliia Veselova.
Having thanked for the study, Serhii Komnatnyi, the Chairman of the Board, stressed that the Fund as a socially oriented institution aspires to seek and implement sustainable solutions in the housing policy. The results of the study are a road map for further steps of the state in this sphere.
“Some recommendations of international experts were already taken into account by us during the updating of the Affordable Housing programme, certain issues may be taken into account at the level of the Fund, Serhii Komnatnyi said. – Some issues are to be solved at a higher level and we’ll initiate such decisions.”
Mr. Komnatnyi reminded that the Fund drafted proposals for the involvement of extra-budgetary financing of housing projects. They include the revolving fund formation to assist citizens unable to cover their part of cost of the housing selected under the programme. The Chairman of the Fund’s Board expressed hope for the support of these initiatives by the international partners of the institution.
IDP PARTICIPATION IN THE «AFFORDABLE HOUSING» (5050) PROGRAMME