After the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, countless people fled the country. Most went to other countries in Europe and now some 7 million people still live abroad.
A significant percentage of these refugees were supported by host communities including individuals and families who welcomed them into their homes. This widespread show of solidarity provided an essential lifeline to numerous people from Ukraine.
“She [the host] has done a lot for me,” said one of the Ukrainian guests, speaking about the people she is staying with in Hungary. “I found a job with her help... And somehow, we slowly became a family... And we started taking care of each other.”
It was also an enriching experience for many of the host families.
"Sometimes we went shopping together or one bought a thing or two for the other, we shared things," says one woman from Poland who hosted a Ukranian family. “Together we supported and helped each other.”
A social worker with the Slovak Red Cross talks with a woman who fled conflict in Ukraine and is now staying in a private home. The chat is part of regular follow up meetings that Red Cross social workers carry out as part of their work in supporting Ukrainian refugees hosted in private homes.
Photo: Slovak Red Cross
Such solidarity is not unique to the Ukraine conflict. People have welcomed refugees into their homes for as long as there have been wars, famines, and other calamities. But the movement of people from Ukraine that began after the escalation of hostilities in 2022 — and the response of many European countries — marks a significant moment in recent history.
Instead of closing their doors to refugees, communities in Europe largely accepted them. The spontaneous expression of solidarity toward them —by private individuals and government authorities — meant that the people coming from Ukraine had additional accommodation options than the common reception facilities as collective centers or camps (as often happens when large amounts of people flee from one country to another).
Rather, communities across Europe focused their support on the idea of housing people in private accommodations within host communities.
Humanitarian organizations, government agencies, and enterprises that support people in need worked together in unprecedented ways in order to build on this solidarity. They coordinated multiple types of support, both for refugees and the people and communities hosting them.
One key example is the Safe Homes Programme. Funded by the European Commission’s Asylum Migration and Integration Fund, the programme was implemented by the IFRC along with Red Cross National Societies in nine European countries: Belgium, France, Ireland, Hungary, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
Driven by the dedication of individuals, organisations and national authorities, the programme aimed to provide safe homes for people who fled Ukraine and to support their integration into national systems.
Dmytro Kikvidze and Anastassia Honcharova walk with their dog in Sligo, Ireland, where the couple has been hosted by an Irish family for more than one year.
Photo: Irish Red Cross, ProfileTree Belfast
A new model
While this approach is not new and National Societies and other organizations have matched refugees with host families, it has never before been done on this scale. The Safe Homes Programme, therefore, helped with the monumental tasks of sourcing, matching, safeguarding and nurturing relationships between hosts and guests. It also helped the organizations involved to reflect on good practices and lessons learned so that communities, governments and host communities might be better prepared for similar situations in the future.
Recently, the programme released a comprehensive report “Safe Homes: Key Lessons From Hosting People Displaced from Ukraine in Private Homes”, which in many ways serves as a blueprint or model for similar mass collaboration around private hosting.
“The aim is to grasp the full picture of the hosting situation in these countries, which not only allows for better decision-making in the short term, but also informs strategies for potential future initiatives,” says Denisse Solis, Manager of the Safe Homes Programme, IFRC Europe Regional Office.
New lessons and new questions
This is particularly critical in cases such as this when the potential solutions are as complex as the challenges. For example, the kind of solidarity shown toward Ukrainian refugees is also extended to all people in need of safety,
It’s worth noting, however, that private hosting is not new, nor is it exclusive to Europe and Ukrainian refugees.
Private hosting has been widely supported by National Societies, local organizations, and individuals in various ways in all regions along crises where population movement has taken place. The Irish Red Cross’s work in helping to pair Syrian refugees with host families is just one example.
There are also other complexities within host communities. Often, they too are going through tough times in different ways. At the time of the Ukraine conflict escalation, for example, the world was still grappling with the aftermath of a global pandemic, with economies and supply chains stressed, and money for public services severely stretched.
One key question therefore, is to what degree is it fair to rely too much on private hosting without a proper strategy on what will happen next, as this type of crisis usually it do not resolve easily.
“The state has relied almost entirely on the solidarity of its citizens,” noted one representative for local authorities Belgium who was quoted in the report. “It’s a problem because there was no prospect of a long-term solution. Host families were stretched to the limit. Then the pressure fell on local authorities, which had to find solutions.”
The Safe Homes Programme report centers around 15 key ‘Lessons learned’. Lesson number one: “Hosting schemes must be designed with clear exit strategies, set up from the start, which enable guests to transition from hosting arrangements.”
This lesson is backed up by a quote in the report from a Ukrainian case worker for the Irish Red Cross. “At the very beginning, people thought they were going to be here for a short period of time. Everybody was in this temporary mode,” the case worker said. “Most people were sitting on their suitcases waiting for the day to go back home. But now, you can see the changes in people’s way of thinking. They finally started to realise that it is not going to happen anytime soon.”
It all starts with a Safe Home
In each country, Red Cross Societies implemented the Safe Homes programme in different ways, in the “Safe Homes: Case Studies” you will find detailed information of the different efforts, successful experiences, but also different challenges. [See also one-page, country-specific summaries of the case studies].
“One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of housing, and this is particularly frustrating for social workers because they have no influence on this issue,” said one social worker from the Luxembourg Red Cross quoted in the report.
“Many guests feel deeply frustrated because they do not want to return to reception facilities, but they do not have access to social housing either.”
In short, hosts provide essential support, but it cannot replace public financing and support for housing. Nor can host families be expected to replace the role of social workers and public authorities. In the end, it’s about providing a complex array of support from a variety of angles and partners. But it starts with a safe home.
“Everything starts with accommodation,” says one social worker, Slovak Red Cross quoted in the report. “We heard that all the time from the refugees. Unless they know where they are going to stay, they can't focus on something else like enrolling kids to school, find a job, and so on.”
