Empowering Communities: Vital rental assistance support for displaced Ukranian families

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine. The active conflict continues two years on, with 3.67 million Ukrainians displaced internally and 5.97 million Ukrainians displaced across Europe (UN OCHA Feb 2024). Given continued shelling, extensive damage to over 1.4 million homes, an estimated $10.5 billion in damage and losses to energy infrastructure, and the exhaustion of coping strategies and savings, significant multi-sector needs are expected to continue for families on the frontline and internally displaced persons (IDPs) throughout 2024 (World Bank, Recovery and Reconstruction Needs Assessment 2023).

CVA has been a pillar of CORE’s response across the region, including rental assistance. Lvivska Oblast has one of the highest numbers of IDPs in Western oblasts, hosting nearly 175,000 IDPs, many of whom settled in collective centers (IOM Internal Displacement Report, Round 15). Protection risks are higher in collective centers, a concern given 61% of adult IDPs are women, 21% are 60+ years old, and 21% are children. Rental assistance was the critical shelter need identified by the Winterization plan released by the Protection Cluster Ukraine in 2022.

This learning brief focuses specifically on lessons drawn from CORE’s Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF)-supported rental assistance program to 236 households (773 individuals total), which was implemented from November 2023 to June 2024 in Lviv and Lvivska oblast, and includes recommendations for scaling in this context.