The refugee and housing crisis? All about what it looks like and how can we solve it?

Wiktor Bochenek

06 of June '22

The report "The housing issue and the refugee crisis. Common challenges and solutions for balancing the housing sector in Poland"

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It's hard not to notice that war has become soiled in our consciousness. Sociologists are increasingly talking about "aid fatigue" in the context of helping refugees from Ukraine. We need to turn solutions envisioned for a few months into a long-term plan. The lack of proper ideas in the mirror shows our years of neglect.

Alisa, 5, plays with teddy bears in the bedroom of a Warsaw apartment provided to the family by the Habitat for Humanity Poland Foundation together with the city of Warsaw. Preparing to flee Ukraine, the girl's mother said she could take what was important to her in her backpack. Alisa chose teddy bears.

Photo: Jemma Reid, © Habitat for Humanity Poland

The report, "TheHousing Issue and the Refugee Crisis. Common challenges and solutions for balancing the housing sector in Poland" was prepared by the Institute for Urban and Regional Development. The authors of the document are Magdalena Milert, Kamil Nowak and Bartłomiej Sroka.

In the report, the authors first of all point out how the refugee crisis is going, how short-term solutions have been implemented, and what needs to be done long-term.

Thus, we have in Poland, on the one hand, excessive density and concentration of refugees in a few of the largest metropolises, and on the other hand, numerous medium-sized cities that could and would gladly take in refugees, but do not have sufficient housing stock. Such a situation poses a serious but surmountable challenge for public policy related to managing the refugee crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine, Wojciech Jarczewski, director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Development, points out in the introduction to the report.

The report, "The Housing Issue and the Refugee Crisis. Common challenges and solutions for balancing the housing sector in Poland"

how has the war affected the landscape of Polish cities?

According to data reported by the UNHCR, more than 4.6 million people left Ukraine between February 24 and April 11. That's more than as a result of the years-long conflict in Afghanistan or South Sudan. At the peak of the movement, more than 200,000 people a day left Ukraine - as many as the population of Radom. As a result, Poland became the second country in the world in terms of the number of refugees admitted. Just a year ago, it did not enter the top 100.

Countries with the highest number of refugees admitted

The authors of the report explicitly point out that it is primarily due to grassroots, community involvement and support of local governments in Poland that a humanitarian catastrophe and the construction of refugee camps have been avoided. According to estimates by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, more than 600 ,000 people have taken up residence with private individuals. A sizable number of refugees live in tourist facilities, and many still find shelter in adapted public facilities. Among others, in former supermarkets or halls that can be adapted to such functions(see here). All of these measures should be counted as short-term aid. How much did it cost the country's budget? 9.4 billion zlotys, or about 1.8% of the 2022 budget.

Where is the rapid population growth most pronounced? In large cities, which also directly affected the real estate rental market. The authors of the report point to the decline in the availability of apartments, which, having skyrocketed, have pushed prices upward. On the OLX group portal, between the beginning of March and April, the number of offers for rent in major cities fell from more than thirty thousand to about fifteen thousand.

The number of market rental offers available on OLX group portals

This directly led to an increase in rental prices - primarily in provincial cities. The only city where rental prices have not exceeded 20% is Lublin. The largest increases in rates were observed in Wroclaw (52%), Zielona Gora (41%) or Krakow (41%).

Rental price increases from the end of February 2022.

How to solve the problem?

It is difficult to predict how the market situation will continue, no less the situation on the market has shown many years of government negligence in the context of the lack of responsible housing policy. The stock of social housing in Poland is too small, relative to the needs even before the influx of refugees, let alone at a time when we are facing one of the biggest refugee crises. So what should be done?

First and foremost, realize that schools and sports halls cannot be treated as anything other than a short-term solution. As soon as possible, the way should be thought through to create conditions that allow accommodation in the long term, which will positively affect the economy.

Dislocation of refugees should take into account small and medium-sized cities. Former provincial cities, which are trying with all their hands to save themselves from the problem of depopulation and extinction. Such centers can offer a lower cost of living and better access to social infrastructure. Paying attention to these opportunities will not only relieve pressures on the rental market in large cities, but change the negative demographic processes in smaller centers.

Refugee reception options during a crisis situation

It is necessary to introduce a housing development strategy in Poland to reduce the housing deficit and pressure on large urban centers. Housing construction could focus more strongly in small and medium-sized cities. It is worth considering a change in the regulation of vacant properties, which would allow them to adapt and prevent housing speculation. It is also important to implement solutions in the public-private partnership process for social and municipal housing.

Number of housing units completed per 1,000 residents in 2020.

The authors of the report also point to the need to implement a program to build temporary housing for refugees. The most important thing is to avoid the construction of pathological, disorganized camps or asylums, in favor of Integrated Modular Settlements, such as the British Container Learn or the project RE: Ukraine by the Ukrainian Balbek Studio, discussed on our portal(see here). Such solutions create good conditions for adaptation and stabilization, and can be created in cooperation between the government, local government and the private sector.

Container Learn (proj. Container City)

It is necessary to create an integrated database of information for refugees, bringing together everything that matters most.

can we replace empathy?

Helping refugees from Ukraine has become a salt in the eye of the so-called glass patriots. The slightest support in the form of finding a place to live, opening a school or providing food and livelihoods is met with unprecedented aggression and rejection. Patriots made of glass feel a constant threat to their position, so the smallest assistance to refugees becomes a reason for them to constantly melee and attack, and create a sense of danger.

Such behavior should not be underestimated, especially in a democratic system, where populist behavior is a perpetual threat to society. Introducing systemic solutions to organize long-term measures will have a positive direct impact on the economy, housing policy and rental prices in major cities.