The Romanian government’s free housing scheme for displaced Ukrainians living in Romania, otherwise known as ‘50/20’, has been in operation since April 2022, but now threatens to come to an abrupt end as a publicly released draft law which would change the program was published on March 24th.
The 50/20 program been a lifeline for Ukrainians for months but has also been hard to implement accurately. According to the current scheme – landlords should receive 50 lei per tenant per day, plus 20 lei to give to their tenants in the form of cash or food. However, according to a UNHCR December 2022 survey, there are cases where landlords do not give 20 lei per day to their tenants, which is obligatory.
In recent months, landlords’ frustrations have surfaced, as payments from the scheme have not been made since December last year, meaning some are forced to evict Ukrainians in order to bring in paying tenants.
Olga, 27, her husband and their two children were asked to leave their flat with one week’s notice. “We didn’t even have money for the bus back to Ukraine, a humanitarian organization helped us. Without that, we would have been stuck”. Olga and her family are now back in Izmail, Ukraine.
The suggested revised scheme would entitle a family of any size, including individuals living alone in Romania, to a lump sum of 2,000 lei per month, but the conditions are sparsely specified and as of yet, there is no guarantee of its implementation.
Adrian, a property developer and landlord on the 50/20 scheme, hosts 60 refugees in Buftea. “I will not ask anyone to leave if the scheme ends”, Adrian tells Universul.net, “but the impact for landlords is huge, even if we are the homeowners, we don’t know how we’ll pay the invoices for electricity”. Adrian has hosted over 300 refugees since March 2022.
The sector 2 town hall’s community facilitator, Ilia, works day-to-day with those who are navigating the 50/20 program – “There is no protection in the proposal after 4 months of the new program and nothing in the law proposal that offers any protection for disabled people for example, or for people taking care of their disabled children or relatives”.
Those like Irina who, alone, financially supports her two children by working at a hotel, as well as her elderly parents in Bucharest, completely rely on the scheme. “I have only words of gratitude for everything that has been done for Ukrainian women and children in Romania”, she tells Universul.net, “but my salary will only go to rent. I will not be able to pay for food, utility bills and all other necessary expenses. This would be a catastrophe”.
An economist by trade, Irina, is limited in work opportunities as she does not speak proficient Romanian or English and in the event of no financial aid, would be “forced to return to Ukraine” though there is “no stability and no sense of security”.
Government housing centers are expected to continue to run free of charge for Ukrainians.
Adam – an 82 year old pensioner and his daughter Alisa, lived in their basement in Mykolaiv for 6 weeks before fleeing to Romania last year. Alisa’s family home is in Skadovsk, which has been under Russian control since the start of the full-scale invasion. After being told by neighbors that the door to her flat was sawn off and the flat occupied by the Russian forces, she does not know when she will be able to return there and what will be left. “We are already morally exhausted and are waiting for news from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. If the entire Kherson region is liberated, then we want to go home”.
Alisa cares full-time for her elderly father – the free housing scheme is the only way they can afford accommodation in Romania. “If the scheme is canceled, then we will not be able to pay for housing, it will be a factor in us going home, whether it is safe or not”.
The current scheme is, in theory, equipped to support the approximate 100,000 Ukrainians who did not transit and chose to stay in Romania. The UNHCR says on its website that there there were between 98,000 and 107,706 Ukrainians who fled their country living in Romania in December 2022.
For 50/20 advisor Ilia, it is an added worry that in the new draft proposal, there is no suggestion of a transition period to allow Ukrainians to find a way to support themselves financially.
“This situation puts a lot of people in immediate risk of eviction and/or even human trafficking”. If the draft is brought into being as it is written now, “there will be an instant transition to rental contracts which requires the refugees to provide one month of rent, one month guarantee and maybe one more month of rent until any money from the new version of the 50/20 will arrive”.
Such amendments could see large-scale migration of refugees back to Ukraine, in the event of evictions or inability to financially support themselves by finding work.
Romania government says it spent 500 million euros in aid for Ukrainian refugees
