The Ministry of Community and Territories Development of Ukraine held a meeting with the OVA and communities on the formation of commissions that will work with IDP applications within the framework of the housing program for internally displaced persons from temporarily occupied territories. The event was chaired by the Deputy Minister of Community and Territories Development of Ukraine Natalia Kozlovska.
Currently, the Ministry of Community and Territories Development, together with the parties involved in the development of the program, are testing the technical functionality of the service. Acceptance of applications for participation in the program will start on December 1. First, the program will be available to IDPs from TOT who have a separate status of a participant in hostilities or a person with a disability as a result of war. These are participants in hostilities and persons with a disability as a result of war, who have defended the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine since 2014.
They will be able to apply for participation initially only through the Diya mobile application, and later – in the ASNs or through a notary. The applications will be handled by commissions located at the place of actual residence/stay of the applicant, indicated in the current IDP certificate.
During the meeting, the pace of formation of commissions and the state of their preparation for work were also considered. Currently, commissions have been created in 541 out of 1,306 communities. The most active in this process are Odesa, Rivne, Kherson and Zhytomyr regions. At the same time, work is progressing extremely slowly in some regions: the lowest rates of commission formation are in Ivano-Frankivsk region, Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk region.
During the meeting, the Deputy Minister instructed communities and local self-government bodies to accelerate the formation of commissions and their connection to the RPZM. In addition, training for commissions on working with the updated functionality of the Register will take place at the end of this week.
“Next week, applications for a new housing assistance program for people who lived in temporarily occupied territories will begin to be accepted. The commissions must be fully prepared from day one, because their readiness will determine how quickly and efficiently applications from people who need this support will be processed. I ask all leaders of the OVA and communities to speed up work for an organized start of the process,” said Natalia Kozlovska.
Assistance under the new “eReconstruction” component is aimed at purchasing new housing for people whose homes remained in temporarily occupied territories. This program does not check the condition of the housing – is it damaged or destroyed. It is not necessary to confirm ownership, but data on existing housing in the TOT must be indicated in the application.
The key condition for participation is that the applicant and his family (husband/wife and minor children) do not have other housing in the controlled territory of Ukraine and have not previously received state housing assistance.
The status of an IDP with a previous place of registration at the TOT, a separate status of a combatant and a person with a disability as a result of the war will also be checked.
Thus, the state will check only those facts that will affect the person’s right to use the program now. The new housing program for IDPs who left the temporarily occupied territories provides for the provision of vouchers in the amount of UAH 2 million per person for the purchase of housing.
The Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine will provide additional clarification on how the program will work.