From Ruins to Rental Affordable Housing as a Rapid, and Climate-Smart Response to Urban Displacement

This session examines how Ukrainian cities are transforming vacant municipal buildings into affordable rental housing for vulnerable displaced families. Addressing large-scale vacancy offers a cost-effective and environmentally responsible response to displacement, enabling municipalities to expand adequate housing supply more rapidly than new construction while strengthening urban resilience. Drawing on real examples, the session focuses on implemented projects that expand affordable municipal housing stock, to support internally displaced persons and neighborhood and city-centre revitalization. Transforming underused public buildings into permanent rental homes helps address the housing crisis and offers a practical pathway to build inclusive and economically stable neighborhoods during the war and crises. The case of Kalush, a medium-sized city in western Ukraine, demonstrates how affordable rental housing can be institutionalised through adaptive reuse, municipal leadership, and partnerships with civil society. The session will emphasize key enabling conditions, including local leadership, supportive policy frameworks, innovative financing and design solutions, and early placemaking activities such as community engagement and participation in planning and design. Through moderated discussion and audience interaction, the session will distil lessons on how adaptive reuse–based housing approaches can be scaled and adapted for cities facing conflict, disasters, or displacement. Drawing on the Kalush experience - particularly relevant in contexts where housing policy has favoured private ownership or where rapid urbanisation and crisis conditions strain local authorities - the discussion will examine how partnerships across governance levels shape projects from planning through implementation and act as catalysts for urban cohesion. The debate question is whether housing pilot projects can serve as capacity-building for municipalities under crisis pressure, how NGOs can evolve into long-term housing co-providers, and which institutional models are required to ensure sustainable management, maintenance, and environmentally responsible operation. It will conclude with action-oriented takeaways for integrating affordable rental housing into urban recovery and resilience strategies.