Continuity and change: wartime housing politics in Ukraine

Abstract

The article analyses the war-imbued housing crisis in Ukraine and emergency response to it in the first four months of the full scale Russian invasion as embedded in the wider context of Ukrainian housing politics. As in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe after 1989/91, the Ukrainian housing sphere has been shaped by mass giveaway privatisation, which created a super homeownership regime that is characterised by high expectations towards the state in the support of homeownership. Despite the mass destruction of the war and scale of the displacement, housing politics continues to be shaped by institutional inertia and attempts to resolve the current housing crisis with existing instruments and the support of homeownership. Such an ad-hoc policy approach leaves displaced households without coherent assistance in finding shelter. Only rather sporadic and insufficient options provided by communities at local level and international aid organisations are available. However, while lacking institutional and policy adjustment in the first months of war, the Ukrainian housing sector is changing. Growing importance of renting in the tenure structure and the pressing need to shelter those who lost access to homeownership as a result of war call for the development of a new, more comprehensive, housing strategy.

KEYWORDS: :

• Ukraine
• emergency housing
• housing for IDPs
• war and housing

Acknowledgements

The article summarises, critically evaluates, and further develops discussions in the forum ‘New Housing Policies’ that took place on June 4th and brought together a variety of experts and actors in the housing field in Ukraine. The authors are thankful to colleagues Pavlo Fedoriv and Oleksandr Anisimov for reviewing and commenting on the article. A special gratitude belongs to the academic reviewers Julie Lawson, Alona Liasheva and Emma Power, who encouraged us to glimpse into the alternative future.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 There are numerous international aid organisations that support Ukrainian humanitarian needs today within the country’s borders. Among them EUCPM, ADRCC, OCHA, WFP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, ICRC, WHO, Plan International, USAID, ISRAAID, GIZ, EUAM. Their actions are managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (Vasylenko, 2022). We recognize the research on coordination of the international aid in the war-imbued Ukraine as a promising topic for another study.

2 All groups consisted of a number of Ukrainian experts, some of which were extensively informed by the relevant foreign institutions. The role of these experts could be an important topic for future research. For instance, the expertise of the Housing2020 group and EIB contributed to acknowledging the need for a more active state role in the housing system, highlighting the role of public interest stakeholders and supporting the inclusion of municipal capacity building and revision of the concept of social housing. All of these are present in the resulting Recovery Plan as options to be developed.