The full-scale russian aggression has made it clear that Ukraine needs to urgently change its housing policy and introduce modern European approaches in this area. The Parliament is currently working on a draft law on the principles of housing policy, which, in particular, will set out the mechanism of social housing.
“We have developed a draft law "On the Basic Principles of Housing Policy", which should replace the Housing Code. The document is currently under consideration by our Committee. We are holding large-scale public discussions, and there have already been three rounds of such discussions. We are collecting all the proposals in order to add the opinions of all stakeholders to the law as much as possible before registering it,’’ informed the MP.
According to her, the draft law will finally spell out the mechanism of social housing.
“As of today, our cities, municipalities, and communities do not have any housing stock that they could use for IDPs, for people who have lost their homes due to an accident, disaster, etc. And when we talk about social housing, we mean that it will be owned by communities, which will manage it, manage this housing stock, provide it for social rent at a price that will depend on the income of the family that needs such housing,” the MP said.
She added that the European Investment Bank, with the support of the European Commission, is considering the possibility of introducing a pilot project to create social housing in Ukraine.
“The partners want to provide 200 million euros for our municipalities and communities to implement social housing. To see how the mechanism will work even before the law is adopted. We hope that the European Commission will join and support this project with investment grants. So, on the one hand, we are changing the legislative framework, and on the other hand, we are taking practical steps that can be evaluated, to see how we have built and leased out the housing, whether the rental income is enough to maintain this housing stock,” emphasized Olena Shulyak.