Housing and communal services (HCS) in Ukraine remain one of the last unreformed sectors. With a dilapidating housing stock, growing prices of energy and communal services, together with the deepening economic crisis and dwindling state resources (central and local) to support the sector, key actors to demand improvements and take responsibilities will be housing (condominium) associations. Currently only six percent of the Ukrainian flat owners are mobilized in such associations (compared with 25% in Poland at the similar stage of economic transition). To support and speed up this process, a Housing Coalition, an informal union of advocacy and community groups, was launched in February 2008.

The main goal of the coalition is to promote democracy and underscore obligations and benefits of private ownership. The coalition uses various mechanisms to mobilize citizens to influence housing policy in Ukraine, and helps citizens to develop a sense of private ownership, as well as defend their private ownership rights and interests. The coalition holds advocacy, public awareness, and informational campaigns at the national and regional level, focuses on public education campaigns relating to condo associations' effectiveness; public control over government's execution of the housing reform programs; advocating for legislative changes; legal support of functioning condo associations; and sharing best practices among civic groups and condo associations.

Since its formation, the coalition has held a number of media outreach and public events, such as regional roundtables and forums to advocate for a new condo association law; a TV public service announcement on condo associations; and "Send a postcard to your MP" campaign, which appeals to parliamentarians to vote for a new condo association law. Leading members of the coalition visited Warsaw and Krakow on a study mission to learn from the Polish experience. The World Bank will fund the development of a web portal to provide a virtual community of practice for the coalition and provide knowledge resources for condo associations in the process of formation.

Currently, a training center has been set up in Kyiv and a series of roundtables has been held in Kovel and Kamianets Podilsky, where people are actually being introduced to the idea of condo associations and private management companies.

Remaining Challenges

There are several challenges that the Housing Coalition faces:

• Sense of entitlement to communal services provided by the Government ad infinitum and resistance , remnant from the Soviet past, to assume their ownership rights and responsibilities;
• Populist messages sent by the Government and party leaders about cheap housing and communal services which appeals to the broader population but disallows moving forward on reforms;
• Lack of political will on the part of many parliamentarians to put aside their partisan interests and cooperate for the common benefit of their constituencies, the majority of whom are apartment owners;
• Inability to move forward the necessary HCS legislative agenda, due to high turnover of authors, their short-term attention span prompted by frequent elections and shifting populist priorities, which HCS agenda is not part of.
• Massive corruption within local government regarding land and property transactions, ineffective housing and condo association legislation, inexperienced condo associations, lack of competition on the housing services market.

Coalition members

• Public Network OPORA is a non-partisan national network with 18 regional branches, which mobilizes citizens to influence decision making in Ukraine. It also monitors social and political processes, and carries out advocacy and public education campaigns. Contact person: Inna Sovsun +38 067 502-5727
• Union of Home Owners is a national civic group that focuses on protection of citizen rights in the housing sector. It was founded in November 2006 and has branches in 25 cities of Ukraine. Contact person: Mykhailo Berezovchuk +38 096 334-4650
• Institute for Political Education is a NGO promoting effective local governance, free and fair elections and democratic processes, youth leadership and civil society development. Contact person: Oleksandr Solontay +38 050 372-5100
• Center of Local Governance Research is a Lviv-based NGO that works closely with Poland to glean from their experience in condominium management and energy efficiency. Contact person: Volodymyr Bryhilevych +38 050 500-7404
• Mayors' Club: A national organization that unites mayors from small and medium sized cities. Contact person: Volodymyr Udovychenko, mayor of Slavutych.
• In addition to these groups, there are over 45 regional advocacy and community groups and condominium associations.