Together with its partners, IWO held a working meeting in Bila Tserkva dedicated to developing a local housing strategy as part of the project “Strengthening of Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing” (SUR).

The project is part of German transitional development assistance, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The event brought together representatives of relevant departments of the Bila Tserkva City Council, representatives of the Council on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), heads of local homeowners’ associations, and project experts. The working group on developing the housing strategy is led by Deputy Mayors Alona Kolotnytska and Vasyl Morskyi.

Work on the document is ongoing against the backdrop of a comprehensive housing policy reform in accordance with Ukraine’s commitments under the Ukraine Facility Plan, which includes the adoption of the National Housing Strategy. In this context, local housing strategies must be aligned with national priorities while also addressing local specificities, needs, and capabilities. By participating in the SUR project, cities receive support for these transformations.

During the working meeting, the experts presented:

• the legislative framework and structure of the local housing strategy: Nataliia Korotchenko, housing policy expert at IWO e.V., and Yuliia Popova, project manager and analyst at IWO e.V., presented a practical model for developing a strategy, using the work carried out for the Zhytomyr City Territorial Community as an example;
• a socio-demographic study of IDPs in Bila Tserkva: Svitlana Mashtak, senior sociologist at the research company “Operatyvna Sotsiolohiia” LLC, presented the results of a study commissioned by GIZ, which identifies socio-demographic changes in Bila Tserkva linked to internal displacement, the demographic structure of IDPs, the characteristics of their housing situation and needs, their level of integration into the community, the effectiveness of existing support programmes, and other key aspects.

The study revealed distinct characteristics specific to Bila Tserkva: a high proportion of the displaced population consists of people of working age and professionals with higher education. The relocation of businesses, together with their employees, has had a significant impact on local dynamics, directly affecting demand and price trends in the property rental and purchase markets. Members of the IDP Council supplemented the quantitative data with their own assessment of the challenges faced by displaced persons in the community.

The data collected will form the basis for developing a housing strategy for Bila Tserkva. It will help substantiate and quantify the need for social housing, as well as guide the planning of investments required to meet local housing demand.

IWO would like to express sincere thanks to the Bila Tserkva community, experts, and partners for their openness to dialogue and constructive cooperation towards the sustainable development of Ukraine’s housing sector.

A video report on the event can be found in the press release from the Bila Tserkva City Council: https://bc-rada.gov.ua/node/17765

On May 17-22, 2026, IWO took part in the World Urban Forum (WUF) 13, which was hold in Baku, Azerbaijan.

WUF is one of the most important global conferences on sustainable urban development, convened by UN‑Habitat. This year’s theme, “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities,” directly addressed the global housing crisis and resulted in the Baku Call to Action.

Knut Hoeller, Executive Board Member of IWO e.V., contributed to two events of the Forum.

The first event Housing for Recovery and Resilience – Municipal Social Housing as Sustainable Development Goals in Action was organized by GIZ.

The panel focused on the preparation to the implementation of the municipal housing in Ukraine, strongly backed by Germany. The mayor of Hannover made a statement on the vital importance of local housing provision for a city, and that Hanover will continue to support its twin town in this area. EIB representative Grzegorz Gajda explained the EIB pilot program for financing the municipal housing projects and outlined the pathway for systemic financing of this sector in Ukraine. The representatives of IWO’s partner cities within the framework of SUR* project – Volodymyr Nikolaichuk, the Head of the Department of Housing and Communal Services of Mykolaiv City Council, and Svitlana Olshanska, Deputy Mayor of Zhytomyr city – presented the key results from the joint development of the municipal housing strategies, outlining cities’ housing recovery priorities.

“The main challenge in establishing social housing in Ukraine and other transition countries is overcoming the cultural and political stigma surrounding non-ownership housing models. This stigma is rooted in a distrust of state institutions that dates back to the socialist era. Once societies accept that renting doesn’t undermine freedom and is essential for internally displaced people, workers and students, a more resilient and diverse housing market can be achieved,” emphasized Knut Hoeller.

The second event From Ruins to Rental Affordable Housing as a Rapid, and Climate-Smart Response to Urban Displacement was organized by NGO Metalab and Habitat for Humanity Ukraine.

At this panel, the partners presented the results of building retrofitting project in Kalush, which created 48 social rental units and an operational and management model to further manage these apartments. Member of Parliament Pavlo Frolov, who is a co-author of the Law of Ukraine #4080, aimed at streamlining the retrofitting method for creation of the housing for IDPs, validated the concept of the project and called it a perfect example of how this direction of work can be implemented in Ukraine.

As IWO has been supporting this retrofitting project with the German experience of public housing management, Knut Hoeller contributed to the panel with highlighting the successes of the project the potential of scaling-up.

Yuliia Popova, Project manager of IWO e.V., spoke at two more events.

The event Risk Assessment in War-Affected Cities Guiding Housing-Centered Recovery and Urban Reconstruction was organized by Lviv City Institute and GIZ.

Yuliia Popova presented the municipal housing strategy as a framework for boosting long-term housing resilience and guiding long-term housing recovery in war-affected cities. The representatives of the SUR partner cities – the Mayor of Kremenchuk Vitaliy Maletskyi, and the Head of Housing Department Maryna Kharchenko, shared cities’ best practice on risk preparedness and response capacity in housing, as well as shared long-term plans for housing recovery, emphasizing the evidence for the need in municipal housing supply.

“When we talk about intrinsic resilience of the housing sector in our strategies, important characteristics to be achieved are the balance between the supply and demand, strong housing management stakeholders with sufficient technical overview of the housing stock, clear definition of responsibilities between the providers and all types of tenant. This would positively influence risks response capacity,” added Yuliia Popova.

The second event Policies, papers, and bricks Capacity Building for Crisis Preparedness and Response was organized by Kyiv School of Economy (KSE).

This interactive event located the recovering cities in the broader international and geopolitical context in the times of polycrises. For this, the cities need the multi-level governance perspective and digital tools to prepare for the crises and to managing of their consequences. As Yuliia Popova shared,

“When we talk about war-induced risks, we should consider that they are compounding pre-existing systemic weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Ukraine is almost solely housing ownership country, with a significant share of shadow rental market, with rather weak housing management and maintenance system, with the relationship at the housing market not being sufficiently regulated. With such preconditions, a mere seemingly technical reconstruction of a destroyed multi-apartment building or accommodation of the IDPs become legally and organizationally complicated. The cascade effects of blackouts intensify when the management system is poor.  It is a classic case of risks overlapping with weaknesses of the system. However, as the definition of resilience suggests, a resilient system is the one that can evolve under external stressors, and this is what we are observing in Ukraine – most of the mentioned systemic weaknesses are being addressed by the ongoing housing reform. IWO supports this reform by building capacities locally.”

The panel presentations continued with practical workshops with all the participants where they could draft crisis response capacity building programs for different crisis scenarios.

Thus, the events covered broad spectrum of topics related to housing recovery: survival of the housing systems under attacks, housing retrofitting as a viable method to create social housing for the internally displaced population, long-term municipal housing strategies and the role of municipal housing in Ukraine’s recovery, as well as anchoring lessons learnt in policies and institutions.

Currently, IWO e.V. implements four projects in Ukraine related to housing recovery. The platform of WUF13 was a valuable opportunity to share the groundwork and findings of these projects, gained together with the partners. Under the SUR project, IWO cooperates with the cities of Poltava, Zhytomyr, Kremenchuk, Bila Tserkva, Mykolaiv and Kalush. Within FELICITY II, IWO supports the cities of Kryvyi Rih and Mykolaiv. Most of the cities were able to take part in WUF13 and to proudly share Ukraine’s progress towards improvement of the housing system amidst the constant attacks, which once again proves Ukraine’s resilience.

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The project “Strengthening of Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing in Ukraine (SUR)” is as part of the German transitional development assistance, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ Ukraine.

Together with partner organisations, the Housing Initiative for Eastern Europe (IWO e.V.) held a two-day workshop in Zhytomyr in April, bringing together representatives from six Ukrainian pilot cities: Zhytomyr, Poltava, Kremenchuk, Bila Tserkva, Mykolaiv and Kalush. The event focused on strengthening resilience in the municipal housing sector.

The event brought together international organisations, academic institutions, experts and non-governmental organisations. It also marked the first joint meeting of the working groups from the partner cities. During the workshop, analytical findings and recommendations for action were presented for Zhytomyr, Poltava and Kremenchuk, and an intensive exchange between the pilot cities was facilitated.

The workshop took place at a crucial stage, as Ukraine is driving forward its national housing reform and aligning its legal framework with European standards, including the commitments under the Ukraine Facility and the EU integration agenda. In this context, the pilot cities are actively developing strategies for the municipal housing sector that focus on resilience, rethink local governance structures and create viable models for affordable municipal housing. IWO regards the support provided to the cities in this complex transformation process as an important milestone.

After almost a year of collaboration within the SUR project, IWO presented comprehensive analyses and strategic recommendations. These include:

• the condition of the existing housing stock and investment needs (‘renovation debt’),
• an analysis of housing supply in relation to the income of the population and internally displaced persons (IDPs),
• structures and practices of housing administration as well as institutional capacities,
• results of a representative survey of internally displaced persons in all participating cities in cooperation with the Operatyvna Sociologiya Institute.

The analysis shows that internally displaced persons are predominantly reliant on the private rental market. At the same time, demographic structures vary considerably from city to city, for example, there is an increased need for accessible housing and age-appropriate provision in Poltava, which requires tailored housing policy solutions. In this context, it is clear that the framework conditions in the private rental market must be improved, including through stronger municipal measures and regulatory approaches.

The various levels of analysis provide a comprehensive picture of local housing markets and lay the groundwork for the systematic restoration and further development of the sector. The findings also contribute to better coordination between national and international actors in the reconstruction process. In developing the methodology, IWO drew on, among other things, German housing market monitoring.

Pilot projects play a central role in this: municipal and NGO-initiated housing projects, as well as comprehensive renovation measures, serve as practical learning platforms. Cities with relevant experience have been shown to possess greater expertise and implementation capacity in municipal housing construction. At the same time, these pilot projects pave the way for larger investments and structural changes.

This momentum is also evident at the political level: in April 2026, the German and Ukrainian governments adopted a Strategic Partnership Declaration as part of their first intergovernmental consultations since 2004. This includes, among other things, the joint promotion of affordable and social housing, the integration of vulnerable groups, and the establishment of municipal housing companies, including financial support from Germany. In addition, joint investment projects are to be initiated, which will also open up investment opportunities for German companies.

The workshop was organised as part of the project “Strengthening of Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing” (SUR). This is part of Germany’s Strukturbildende Übergangshilfe, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ Ukraine) GmbH.

IWO would like to express its sincere thanks to all participating partners, experts and the cities involved for their cooperation, trust and commitment. Their efforts form the basis for sustainable development in the Ukrainian housing sector.

The city of Kremenchuk, Ukraine, has joined the SUR project!

09.07 – 10.07.2025, the IWO team conducted a working visit to the city of Kremenchuk, Ukraine, in the framework of the Project “Strengthening of Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing in Ukraine” (SUR), implemented by GIZ and commissioned by BMZ.

As IWO is developing resilient housing strategies for four cities to offset the consequences of the armed aggression and develop the housing sector on the path to sustainability, the goal of the visit was to familiarize the team with the housing economy of Kremenchuk and collect the data, identify key threats to long-term resilience and opportunities for quick yet impactful interventions.

During the visit, six productive expert meetings with key housing stakeholders were conducted to gain a comprehensive overview of the housing situation in the city and to discuss ways of strengthening the resilience of the housing system.

Reference:

The sub-project “Strengthening Urban Resilience in Housing” is conducted by IWO e.V. within the framework of the project “Strengthening of Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing in Ukraine” (SUR), which is a part of German transitional development assistance commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.