Supporting the comprehensive refurbishment of temporary accommodation centres, UNHCR helps to create better conditions for IDPs living in collective sites, including many forced to evacuate from areas with heightened security risks.

25 Jun 2024

© UNHCR

Dnipro, 25 June 2024 – Tomorrow, a newly renovated centre for temporary accommodation will be inaugurated in Dnipro City, offering improved living conditions for 88 internally displaced people who fled their homes after the Russian full-scale invasion.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has carried out major upgrades to the facility, located in a dormitory of the “Dnipro Academy of Continuing Education”. Windows are now replaced, rooms and common spaces are refurbished, the water supply, sewage, and heating systems are all renovated, and an elevator has been installed to ensure access for residents with low mobility.

Repairs of collective sites and the creation of new sleeping places remains one of the priorities for UNHCR, as more than 85,000 forcibly displaced people continue living in collective sites more than two years since the start of the full-scale war. They are among the most vulnerable and include older people, people with disabilities, families with several children and internally displaced people with a very low income – and are therefore a priority for UNHCR’s humanitarian programmes.

The Dnipropetrovsk region hosts around 500,000 internally displaced people, which places it amongst the regions hosting the largest numbers of IDPs in the country. As the security situation continues to be precarious along the frontline, many evacuees seek safety in the region, often relying on facilities that are not equipped for long-term accommodation.

To support local authorities, UNHCR will complete comprehensive renovations of an additional six centres for temporary accommodation in Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Vinnytsia regions by the end of 2024. This will help to ensure suitable living conditions for over 1,000 displaced people that can be hosted in these sites, including those who are forced to leave their homes due to evacuations from areas suffering from increased hostilities.

The renovations are carried out with the clear intention of ensuring their functionality after the war is over and when temporary accommodation for displaced people is no longer needed. Most of the premises are located in educational institutions, and the upgrades to the buildings will therefore serve future generations.

“Since the very first days of the full-scale war, we supported people fleeing areas under attack, helping them to access safe and comfortable temporary homes in the host communities. As tens of thousands of people remain in collective sites and many of them have no homes to return to and no means to move out of these centers, it is critical to ensure that they can live in dignified conditions. By renovating these facilities, we immediately improve the well-being of the residents and create more sleeping spaces for displaced people,” says Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR’s Representative in Ukraine.

“We are grateful to UNHCR and its partners for their consistent and timely assistance to the residents of the region and internally displaced persons. Dnipropetrovska CMA, international partners, and philanthropists are making every effort to help new residents of the region adapt and integrate into host communities. There are currently more than 100 collective sites for IDPs in the Dnipro region, some of which need to be renovated. Such reconstruction projects are extremely important and necessary. Together with our partners, we will continue to work in this direction,” said Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk state oblast administration.

Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion, UNHCR together with its NGO partners have undertaken construction works in 228 collective sites and facilities for temporary accommodation across Ukraine, focusing on the regions hosting the largest numbers of displaced people. This includes both major repairs and smaller rehabilitations, such as ensuring functionality of electricity, water and heating systems, replacing windows, and upgrading common spaces.

In total, over 153,000 people living in collective sites received assistance from UNHCR in 2022 and over 99,000 in 2023 which, in addition to repairs, included essential items, appliances, different services and winterization assistance. UNHCR also works on finding alternative and more durable housing solutions for displaced people, allowing them to move out of collective sites, not meant for long-term accommodation.

UNHCR’s programmes and work across Ukraine, including in collective sites, is possible thanks to the generous support from government and private donors, including the United States of America, the European Union, France, Norway and Japan as the five largest donors to UNHCR’s Ukraine response.

Media contact:
Tetiana Kuras, tel +38 098 576 28 44, [email protected]
Elisabeth Haslund, tel +380 95 239 0072, [email protected]