Ukraine's first municipal support hub for internally displaced persons has opened in Kyiv

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, together with Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ukraine, and Natalia Gurzhiy, chair of the board of the “Rokada” Charitable Foundation Natalia Gurzhiy, opened the country’s first municipal facility in the capital dedicated to supporting and assisting internally displaced persons, refugees, and those seeking protection. 

The creation of this Integration Hub is intended to provide systematic assistance to people who were forced to leave their homes due to hostilities. 

At the new center, citizens will be able to quickly receive professional legal and psychological assistance, consultations on current government programs, and help with applying for social services and formal employment. To improve the efficiency of services, each visitor will be assigned a personal social worker who will assist them at every stage of resolving their issues. In addition, the hub has set up workspaces for representatives of 18 relocated and frontline communities, allowing them to hold meetings and maintain direct contact with their fellow residents who are currently in Kyiv. Vitali Klitschko also added that nearly 440,000 displaced persons are currently registered in the capital, of whom more than 260,000 arrived in the city after the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Klitschko wrote about this on Telegram.

Earlier, Ukraine launched a new component of the “eRecovery” program for displaced persons from temporarily occupied territories, and more than 300 housing vouchers have already been funded. Authorities say this is just the beginning of a mechanism designed to help thousands of families obtain housing or compensation.

Ukraine lacks the state budget funds and international aid needed to quickly provide housing for all citizens who have lost their homes due to the war. In light of this, the Verkhovna Rada is proposing to draw on additional funding from local budgets to expand the “eRecovery” program and speed up payments to those affected.