Housing 'Our' Ukrainians

 

The view from an apartment being renovated for one of 'our' Ukrainian families.

 

Every week more Ukrainians arrive in the Sud Touraine, and the Association d'Accueil et Accompagnement des Refugiés de Sud Touraine (AARST), which I am on the committee of, is becoming more and more adept at solving their housing and other problems. Luckily, in France, the right to decent accommodation is taken very seriously indeed.

Some of the renovating team.

 

We have three main solutions on the go at the moment. One is that we've partnered with a marvellous organisation called Ficosil, who take on cases where would be tenants might otherwise struggle to find accommodation. They in turn are partnered with Val Touraine Habitat, the largest private-public provider of social housing in the county. Their usual clients are those with mental health or addiction issues or other social disadvantages such as significant debt or problems paying their bills, and they are amazing. Very unusually for France they are willing to work across county (département) boundries, despite being funded by our county of Indre et Loire. We are so close to Vienne though that it makes sense to be able to offer accommodation in that county too. Ficosil's social worker Matt takes care of all the paperwork, negotiating with private and private-public partnership landlords and dealing with other administrative matters such as State rent assistance, as well as utilities connections. Ficosil acts as guarantor and pays the deposit. 

Essential supplies for renovating.

 

Increasingly the Ukrainians are finding jobs and are becoming independent enough to be paying their own rent. In this case we make sure they are helped with the administrative process of claiming rent assistance and AARST may assist with utilities connection and bill paying. 

Multi-tasking -- on the phone and sanding windows.

 

Then we have Ukrainians staying in private properties that have been offered for free by generous landlords. These places are understood to be short term solutions, but with no hard and fast rules about when they must be vacated. Sometimes these are properties which are for sale, but have been on the market for a long time. AARST arranges utilities connections and pays the quarterly bills. 

Christiane and Christophe discussing progress.

 

Nearly six months into the war we are now working on getting some of our earlier arrivals into some better accommodation. So last Thursday I joined a volunteer team from AARST who cleaned and renovated a two bedroom apartment that has been empty for a while. It is owned by a local shop owner and is situated in a housing development known as the Cité de Tilleuls. There are five blocks of apartments, about 40 dwellings in all. They were originally built to house workers from the Dennery furniture factory just a few minutes walk from the estate, but Dennery closed in 2001 and many of the apartments are empty now.

One of the bedrooms.

 

The work was overseen by Christophe, who is very organised, energetic, kind and professional. By the end of the day we had prepared all the walls and windows for painting the next day. The Ukrainian Mum who will be moving in got to choose some new wallpaper for a feature wall in the sitting room. She said she was amazed at how much work we had got done in just one day. Her little daughter is thrilled and has been showing people which one will be her room. When they first arrived they were allocated a studio apartment in a building on the market square. Then they got the opportunity to move into the one bedroom apartment next door. Now they will have a two bedroom apartment in a block of six, and be that bit more independent.

Plasterer working in the bathroom.

 

AARST is funded by small ad hoc grants from local authorities and by donations from private benefactors. Any donation more than €30 is tax deductible in France. If you would like to support our work, please contact me by email (link in the right side bar) or message me on Facebook. I can then give you the bank details for AARST and our treasurer Gérald's contact details so you can make a donation.

Young women volunteers stripping wallpaper.