High rental costs, abolition of the 40+ subsidy for those hosting war refugees from Ukraine, and the lack of a cohesive emigration aid program, especially regarding housing – these are the main problems of Poland’s migration policy in the housing context. According to announcements from the Ministry of Interior and Administration, the project of the migration strategy will soon be presented so that the government can adopt it before the end of the year. Experts from the Habitat for Humanity Foundation are appealing for significant emphasis on housing in this project.
“To improve the housing situation of refugees, we see the need for a cohesive approach to migration policy. The government, specifically the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, is currently working on the key document, ‘Migration Strategy until 2030.’ It has not been consulted yet, we haven’t seen the project, but we are trying to emphasize to the decision-makers that in this document, a significant emphasis should be put on housing. To our knowledge, the decision-makers do not see it this way, but housing is fundamental. We should simply design housing instruments in such a way that support follows the person,” says Alexandra Krugły, Deputy Director for Advocacy in the Habitat for Humanity Foundation Poland, to Newseria Biznes news agency.
The work on creating a comprehensive migration strategy for Poland for 2025-2030 started in February this year. The process of adopting the strategy is due to end before Poland assumes the presidency of the Council of the European Union, which will happen from 1 January 2025. Meanwhile, next year, based on the new strategy, projects of new legal acts will be prepared, among them will be an amendment to the law on foreigners.
“We need not look solely at housing for people in the most difficult situations as social assistance services under the social assistance law, supportive housing, but we should also consider social policy instruments such as social rental agencies. We should also consider relief systems for peopl who want to rent their non-commercial residences to social rental agencies,” Krugły enumerates.
As she emphasizes, today’s housing crisis affects both Polish citizens and refugees. The most significant issues are the rental market situation and high rental costs, especially in large cities. According to the “Report on the Rental Market” by Otodom.pl for July 2024, the number of available rental apartments is decreasing. At the end of July 2024, there were 22,2 thousand, indicating a nearly 8 percent decrease compared to June, which also saw a decline. The July result is the lowest this year, although almost identical to that of July 2023. The average rental price rose to 3548 zł, from 3500 zł in June.
“We have about a million people with a Ukrainian ID number, i.e., war refugees from Ukraine. They have access to the Polish social aid system and to these solutions, which Polish people in difficult situations would also receive. However, in practice, this access is not so simple: there is a language barrier, social aid is not always prepared to work with these people and offer them specific solutions. We also have a large group here of over 50 thousand Roma people from Ukraine, who often do not speak Ukrainian or Russian, only Hungarian, and there are not many organizations prepared to effectively support this group,”- underlines the expert from Habitat for Humanity Foundation Poland.
At the same time, since July 1, an amendment to the law on aid to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of that country came into force, which abolished the 40zł per day subsidy for private homeowners and centers accommodating less than 10 people who accepted refugees. Starting from mid-year, people who still need support can receive it in mass accommodation centers, that will sign a contract with the appropriate province governor to run such a place.
“Mass accommodation places are not responding to the needs, especially of people with disabilities, in a mental health crisis or large families,” says Alexandra Krugły. “We are before winter, in Ukraine, over 70 percent of infrastructure, which should ensure safe passage through the winter, like power plants, heating plants, is destroyed, often unusable, and there is a risk that we will have additional people from Ukraine, additional refugees, who will also be looking for housing solutions. Let us remember that besides this huge number of people from Ukraine, we also have refugees from various other countries who live in Poland and also struggle with problems regarding access to rental housing.
Programs available for different people in difficult situations, including refugees, are very crowded, which results in long waiting periods.
“The consequences of the lack of appropriate housing programs for refugees are very serious because housing is the basis of everything, only when a refugee person has a roof over their head, they can think about building their life in a new country, look for work “- says Alexandra Krugły. “Since the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine, many international humanitarian organizations and much humanitarian aid has come to Poland and other neighboring countries, which also supported housing programs run by non-governmental organizations. However, conflicts are breaking out all the time and these resources are being redirected elsewhere. As non-governmental organizations, we are conducting our activities and trying to develop instruments that would help refugees.”
Habitat for Humanity Foundation Poland, for instance, is developing a model of social rental agencies, a kind of social intermediation. These are entities cooperating with the municipality, mediating between landlords and people whose income or life situation makes renting a flat in market conditions difficult. An example might be an agency in Dąbrowa Górnicza, which performs all activities related to rental and customer service on behalf of the owners, whereas, in return, they agree to lower prices – in Dąbrowa Górnicza, it is on average 30 percent cheaper than the rental price on the private market. However, this is primarily a solution for people who are ready to stand on their own feet. As the expert points out, a larger number of programs aimed at people in the most difficult situations, who are not yet ready to work and need time to recover, are needed.
“Different countries cope in different ways with this challenge. We, as a frontline country, which has accepted the most war refugees from Ukraine, have the most varied instruments, but I would not call it a cohesive policy. There are tools offered by the government, local governments, but also a large part of support is based on non-governmental organizations. In other countries, especially those with a developed social aid system, refugees are supported like all groups in the most difficult situation. For example, in Denmark, support is offered to them at the beginning, but also a significant emphasis is placed on preparing them for independent functioning.” – indicates the Deputy Director for Advocacy in the Habitat for Humanity Foundation Poland.
