The possibilities and limits of a mid- and long-term housing program for refugees arriving from Ukraine to Hungary

Between March 2022 and March 2023, From Streets to Homes Association (ULE) and Habitat for Humanity Hungary (HFHH) jointly operated a medium and long-term housing program for refugees arriving to Hungary from Ukraine. In the first period of the program (March 2022 to summer 2022), it operated as a Solidarity Housing Program, linking homeowners offering their flats for free or at low cost with refugee families. ULE also provided intensive social work to the families. From the summer of 2022, the Solidarity Housing Program was gradually phased out, and a Rent Subsidy Program was introduced. Under this scheme, the rent payable to homeowners is partially covered (up to 50%). Landlords sign a rental contract directly with the refugee families, and have a separate contract with ULE for the subsidy portion. Under this scheme, families no longer received social work, but were assigned a contact person to contact in case of questions or difficulties. Some households were able to transfer from the first program to the next, which also meant that those who previously had a social worker continued to be accompanied in the Rent Subsidy Program. At the time of the evaluation, in March 2023, 7 households were still participating in the Solidarity Housing Program and 96 households were in the Rent Subsidy Program.