Within the third sub-project of the Regional Housing Programme, the foundations were laid today in Ovca, near Belgrade, for the construction of 235 apartments for refugee families from BiH and Croatia.
The total value of the project is EUR9.8 million. The funding for the construction has been secured partly from the RHP donation Fund, through the CoE Development Bank, and partly from the budget of the City of Belgrade. The donation from the RHP Fund amounts to EUR5.4 million. The construction site is located in Ovcanski put. The contractor of works is Zlatibor gradnja, whereas the design and supervision have been entrusted to the Institute of Transportation CIP. The third RHP sub-project is worth EUR13.6 million aiming to provide a total of 734 housing solutions (apartments, prefabricated houses, construction material packages and rural households) for refugee families registered in Belgrade.
On behalf of Serbia, the first shovel of cement was thrown by the First Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Foreign Affairs/President of the Government Commission for the Coordination of Permanent Integration of Refugees Ivica Dacic. He said the RHP project would provide housing solutions for more than 16,000 refugee families in Serbia, with 47,000 family members.
Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said it was very important to see tangible progress in dealing with housing issues of the refugees, as it represented a major event in the lives of people who have been waiting for proper housing for more than 20 years.
Davenport stressed that the EU was fully committed to resolving the housing issues of refugees in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and BiH and would not give it up.
The ceremony of laying the foundation was attended by numerous distinguished officials from Serbia and the region, as well as the ambassadors of donor countries. Apart from Minister Dacic and Ambassador Davenport, the ceremony was attended by Randolph Scott the US Ambassador, Stephan Sellen, the CEB’s Deputy Director General for loans and social development, Francesca Bonelli UNHCR Senior Field Coordinator, Peter Burkhardt OSCE Ambassador to Serbia, Vladimir Cucic Commissioner for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia, Andreja Mladenovic Deputy Mayor of Belgrade, Goran Kvrgić, Director of project management unit at “Istraživanje i razvoj“ d.o.o., Aleksandar Jovicic President of Palilula Municipality and many others.
Regional Housing Programme is a joint multi-year initiative of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia, and Serbia which aims at providing durable housing solutions for approximately 27,000 most vulnerable refugee families, i.e. around 74,000 people in the region, out of which 16,780 families, around 45,000 people, are in Serbia.
The Regional Housing Programme is implemented with support from the OSCE and UNHCR and funded by the European Union, being its biggest donor, the United States of America, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Turkey, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
