Rental Market Initiative: a new home and a new start for displaced families in Ivano-Frankivsk region
We continue to tell how the regional teams of Rokada are implementing the Rental Market Initiative (RMI) program. In the Ivano-Frankivsk region, 24 internally displaced families are currently its participants. The foundation’s specialists help each one to adapt and feel confident in the community. The program operates overall in five regions – besides the Ivano-Frankivsk region, also in Volyn, Ternopil, Rivne, and Khmelnytskyi regions.
RMI consists of several components – financial assistance for housing rent and payment of utility services, as well as assistance with adaptation in host communities so that the family, even after completion, can independently take care of themselves.
“We do not only offer families the financial support provided by the program, but we also remain by their side in the future. When questions arise, we help find answers, and we try to give people confidence in their own strength. It is precisely the combination of practical assistance with humanity and understanding that gives internally displaced families the feeling that they are not alone with their difficulties,” says Anna Kolisnychenko, a social specialist at the Rokada regional office in Ivano-Frankivsk, and emphasizes that for many people, participation in RMI is significantly more than just saved money on rent and utilities. “This program literally gives people a chance to believe in themselves, become more active, and find their place in the new community.”
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Yelyzaveta Sliptsova dreamed of only one thing – to evacuate her family from her native Izium in the Kharkiv region, which was under continuous shelling. Since 2022, the woman had been living in a shelter in the Ivano-Frankivsk region until Rokada specialists told her about the RMI.
“We thought we would keep living like that, because we didn’t even dream of our own housing. Making any plans was difficult: my son has had mental development features since birth and has also undergone two complex operations,” Yelyzaveta shares.
In the summer of 2026, the Sliptsov family moved into a rented apartment. The woman found a job as an engineer and now feels more confident in life.
Svitlana Kasian also got a new start. Together with her son Danylo, they escaped from Kramatorsk. In the Prykarpattia region, the family was immediately accommodated in a shelter.
“But we understood that a temporary accommodation center meant more restrictions than opportunities. When we learned about the program, we agreed to participate instantly, because it was a chance. That is how we were able to settle in a separate apartment and continue planning our lives outside the shelter,” Svitlana says, adding that this became an opportunity not only to solve the housing issue but also to set up their own space. “Right now, I am working on opening an online store, and ‘Rokada’ is also helping me with this through consultations.”
The project is implemented with the financial support of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine.
