The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has generated significant humanitarian needs among displaced and conflict-affected communities. Despite several ceasefire agreements, the hostilities are ongoing and resulted in large-scale damage to housing and infrastructure. Many conflict-affected communities suffer from regular shelling and require urgent shelter assistance.
UNHCR estimates that 776 houses were damaged in 2019 in both government-/ and non-government controlled areas (GCA and NGCA). A higher level of damage has occurred in NGCA, namely 610 new damages. The Ukraine Shelter Cluster’s Damage Database shows that the conflict resulted in some 24,000 damaged homes in the GCA of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
UNHCR shelter activities in Ukraine have provided a response to two main areas of need: on the one hand, it has tried to provide durable solutions for displaced people and returnees; on the other hand, it has addressed emergency needs for non-displaced families in areas near the line of contact, which has represented the core of the shelter response.
UNHCR has focussed on the repair of houses damaged by the conflict, covering all type of repairs, from those classified as “light” to completely destroyed ones. UNHCR has also always maintained a stock of emergency kits – with shelter material for self-repair and NFIs – to provide first emergency assistance in case of conflict-related incidents.
The primary goal for UNHCR shelter assistance has always been the prevention of unnecessary displacement and the provision of a dignified accommodation to the most vulnerable families among the conflict-affected population and those who have voluntarily decided to return to their homes.
2020 will be the last year of shelter response in government-controlled areas (GCA), as humanitarian needs have been largely covered and the transition phase, as designed by the Shelter Cluster, will be concluded at the end of this year with the transfer of the sectoral responsibilities to the Ukrainian government.
In non-government-controlled areas (NGCA), instead, UNHCR will continue to provide the same type of shelter assistance to the same target groups, as residual needs are still high while the presence of humanitarian shelter agencies is still insufficient.
From 2015 to mid-2020, UNHCR has assisted 21,891 households with long-term repairs; around one-third of them in NGCA. 16,448 households received temporary assistance in terms of acute emergency shelter kits. The number of conflict-affected households still in need of humanitarian shelter assistance is estimated to be between 8,200 and 10,200 households, most of them in NGCA; the lack of precision in the estimation of this figure depends solely on the impossibility to conduct a proper residual shelter needs assessment in non-government-controlled areas.
Find facts about the shelter cluster in Ukraine, its activities and its partners here
Read Mid-Year Report 2020 here
Read more about Winterization campaign 2019-2020 here