The devastating conflict has forever changed the lives of millions of people. Within Ukraine, 3.7 million people remain internally displaced, while an additional 6.5 million people have become refugees in neighbouring European countries.

Habitat has been responding to the regional crisis since day one, offering refugees emergency services and helping them find short-, mid- and long-term accommodation by supporting housing arrangements with host families, refurbishing and furnishing communal spaces, repurposing empty spaces, subsidizing rentals, and running social rental programmes.

At the heart of our work is ensuring refugees have safe, stable places they can call home, even if only temporarily. As we embarked on the second year of our response to the conflict, we applied our Pathways to Permanence approach inside Ukraine, meeting affected families where they are and supporting their short-, mid- and long-term housing needs to achieve stability and recovery.

Even before the war, the housing situation in Ukraine was challenging. An estimated 30% of Ukrainian households were unable to maintain adequate housing temperature in wintertime, and 70% of flats in multi-apartment buildings were also highly energy inefficient, affecting approximately 34 million people, or two-thirds of Ukraine’s population.

Through our partnerships with local and international entities in Ukraine, Habitat successfully supported vulnerable families with direct repairs and winterization upgrades, along with repairs to vital community infrastructures in the hardest conflict-affected regions. In addition, we are supporting war-affected communities by modernising multi-apartment buildings to be energy-efficient and by upgrading the buildings’ basements to establish safe shelter from missile attacks.

Since the start of the conflict, Habitat has raised over £17 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis in Europe. Habitat understands that rebuilding in Ukraine will be just as important as aiding in refugees’ long-term integration in their new countries and advocating for their needs. We are committed to developing and implementing long-term regional housing strategies that bring together government officials, civil society actors and fellow aid organizations to mitigate secondary displacement of refugees and ensure families have the resources they need to thrive.

“I never really thought about what a ‘home’ means before… But now, after everything, and after coming to Poland, I’ve come to realize that home is where safety resides, where your soul finds peace. Home is like a stronghold, where you’re surrounded by love and smiles await you – a place of safety. Every mother wants that secure place for her children.” Iryna, a refugee from Ukraine who settled in Poland with her mother and young son.