320 Abkhazian IDPs offered new homes in western Georgia

Hundreds of people displaced from Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region, who were forced to flee their homes and live in sub-standard collective centres, have received new housing through a Government initiative to rehome vulnerable citizens.

Today, 320 internally displaced families living in Georgia’s western region Samegrelo were introduced to their new homes in 10 newly built apartment blocks.

A young IDP chooses the apartment number for his family in Zugdidi. Photo by Ministry for Refugees and IDPs.

Each family selected their future living arrangements by way of secret voting. In this method, unmarked envelopes were placed on a table and each family selected an envelope which contained details of which apartment block they would live in. This method removed the possibility of people claiming other IDP families had been offered better housing than what they were offered.

The new living facilities for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were fitted out to meet the needs of people with disabilities. These people received specially adapted apartments on the first floor of the buildings.

The 10 apartment buildings were built by Georgia’s Municipal Development Fund with financial support from Germany’s Reconstruction and Development Bank KfW.

The Government-led rehousing project launched on November 1, 2014 and will continue for 10 months.

A 2013 United Nations survey revealed many Georgian IDP collective centres did not meet adequate living standards. To get IDPs into adequate housing, the Georgian Government purchased more than 1,500 houses. These will soon be gifted to eligible families in Georgia’s regional areas.

According to the United Nations Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), there were up to 206,600 IDPs registered by in Georgia at the end of 2013.

About 45 percent of IDP’s lived in collective centres. Of this, the majority of housing (70 percent) did not meet minimum shelter standards, lacked adequate privacy, lacked access to water, proper insulation and functional sewage systems, stated the Gap analysis of the UN Refugee Agency.