Ukrainians on the Move

Two more apartments in the Cité de Tilleuls are nearing the completion of their refurbishment so two more Ukrainian families can move from their temporary accommodation. The Cité de Tilleuls is a housing development in Preuilly dating from, I would guess, the 1970s, consisting of a number of small apartment blocks. Originally they would have housed workers from the furniture factory, but that closed in 2000 and now many of the apartments are empty. Earlier this year we moved several Ukrainian families into apartments there and now we can rehouse Natalyia P and Natalyia N, who each have a son aged about 11 and a daughter aged about 8.

Christiane talking with Bruno, who is painting the bathroom.

 

After picking up some furniture donated by one of my neighbours, a recently widowed English woman, Christiane and I went down to inspect progress on the apartments. Patrice, the painter decorator, was there, and his employee Bruno, who painted our kitchen some years ago. The main problem they've encountered is damp and the apartments have been empty for years.

Substantial areas of wall had to be repaired and replastered in one of the bathrooms because of damp.

The apartments are owned by private landlords but managed by the social housing agent Habitat Sud Touraine. For the moment the rent and utilities bills are to be paid by Ficosil, another local government agency who specialise in getting people in difficult situations into housing. One of the Natalyias is working, as a cleaner and aide at the aged care home. Back in Kyiv she was a business woman, with a cheese boutique. The other has just finished a three month intensive French course and has started a work experience placement at a florist. Back in Kyiv she did a variety of jobs and made costume jewellry.

Some furniture has been donated, other pieces have come from Emmaus, the major charity in France that deals with house clearances and suchlike (the equivalent of Saint Vinnies in Australia).

The view from one of the bedrooms.

The apartments were built in the days when it was still normal to make the staircase from oak, almost certainly French and probably locally sourced. Nowadays a wooden staircase would be in an African hardwood, like ours is.