Urban Housing & Emergency Shelter
Enabling dignity in urban displacement & informal camps
Gaza-Israel war: In 2024, RPI and long-term Middle East charity partner Kids Paradise (KP) are planning to aid war-displaced families in Gaza who face acute shelter needs. Selected participant lists will be run by the inter-agency cross-checking system to avoid duplication and support needs-based targeting of emergency aid.
Turkey – Syria Earthquake: Refugee Protection International and community-led partners assisted over 21,093 earthquake survivors in Syria and Turkey. Of this number emergency shelter support (tents, blankets) targeted 3,483 persons with RPI’s Turkey-based refugee-led charity partners Olive Branch and Kids Paradise. Since 2015, RPI has collaborated annually with these same partners on winterization support to informal camps and tented settlements in war-torn Syria.
Ukraine: After meeting with victims of war-damaged housing in Ukraine’s southeast Zaporizhzhia region, Refugee Protection International and Ukrainian partner Happy Child Foundation provided emergency cash assistance that affected families could use to flee to safer areas or to purchase emergency shelter materials for interim protection. On May 12, 2022, RPI’s Director, Jennifer Hill visited several of the 60 houses reportedly damaged by rocket strikes and shelling in Komyshuvakha on May 11th. RPI and Happy Child also upgraded living conditions at shelters set up in Ukrainian schools and dormitories hosting internally displaced persons from frontline and occupied areas. RPI has visited and supported 4 Ukrainian shelters. RPI and Happy Child have purchased generators, large-scale ovens, dishwashing machines, and more to help shelters accommodate the inflow of displaced persons. RPI also directly purchases bunk beds, linens, winter blankets and other materials in Romania and drives them into Ukraine.
Syria: Since 2015, RPI has annually supported its Turkey-based refugee-led partners to meet urgent winterization needs of informal camps for internally displaced persons in northwest Syria. RPI projects led onsite by these partners have insulated and repaired tents, equipped families with mattresses and rugs, and provided heaters and eco-friendly fuel (dried olive waste) for heating, washing, and cooking. Earlier in the conflict RPI also supported shelter NFIs in south/central Syria. In addition, displaced persons have received temporary rent-free urban housing thanks to upgrades done to hosting shelters in projects co-designed by RPI and its local partners. These projects have often targeted IDPs living in collective shelters to be closed and who require alternative accommodation.
Turkey: RPI helped its refugee-led partners to support newly arrived Syrian refugees with access to urban housing rentals in Gaziantep. In a project co-designed with RPI, partners mediated rental agreements with local landlords and provided temporary rental subsidies to displaced tenants. RPI has worked with its partners in Antakya and Gaziantep to prevent the eviction of female-led refugee families from apartments by linking temporary rental subsidies with livelihoods training programs designed to ease their transition to self-reliance. Turkey has had the highest absolute number of refugees in the world.
Lebanon: In Lebanon, which has hosted the largest number of refugees per capita, RPI has supported community-led charity partners to provide emergency shelter assistance to Syrian refugees who faced housing demolishment orders in informal refugee settlements.
In sum, RPI and its local implementing partners have met 44,650 shelter needs by:
- Subsidizing rent and securing free housing rentals for IDPs in exchange for shelter repairs
- Upgrading housing to render it fit for habitation: rehabilitating plumbing, windows, doors, and generator connections
- Distributing mattresses, blankets, heaters, fuel, and insulation to civilians evacuated from besieged areas and/or fleeing violence
- Distributing waterproof floor matting to flooded tented settlements
- Distributing dried olive pulp as an environmentally friendly fuel for heating and cooking
- Monitoring forced evictions and living conditions
- Mediating disputes between landlords and refugee tenants
Renewable Fuel And Other Housing Essentials
In Syria, 6,765 persons received waterproof floor matting for tents and 4,920 Syrians received alternative heating fuel. 440 civilians evacuated from Eastern Aleppo received mattresses, heaters, blankets, and insulation.
Upgrading Housing
In Syria, 2,400 persons received protective sheeting for 600 damaged shelters and 461 IDPs benefited from repairs to 87 shelters. In Lebanon, 194 refugees received materials for 43 replacement shelters.
Subsidizing Rent
In southern Turkey, 240 refugees, mainly women and children, received subsidized rent and/or coal. In Syria, landlords provided 1 year of free rent to 75 IDPs in return for shelter repairs.
Emergency aid planned for victims of war-damaged housing visited by RPI in southeastern Ukraine
A Syrian family supported by RPI’s housing rental assistance with local partners in Turkey
RPI’s partners Kids Paradise and Olive Branch improving conditions in tented settlements in Syria.
