19 Families in Kladanj Municipality Receive Apartments with EU Support

Nineteen families in Stupari and Starici settlements, Municipality of Kladanj, moved into their new homes today as part of the Regional Housing Programme, a programme to provide displaced persons with homes, which is over 80% funded by the EU. The total value of the project in the Municipality Kladanj is over 1.6 million BAM.

Gianluca Vannini, Head of the Operations Section for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-Border Cooperation, handed over the keys to some of the families on behalf of the EU Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"This program is an excellent example of our successful joint work in the region to promote peace, stability, and socioeconomic development. A home means stability, it means security, it means a chance to plan for a better future. The homes we are delivering today are yet another tangible example of the European Union's support for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am very satisfied with the results we have achieved so far, having built around 2,800 housing units throughout BiH and we are gradually approaching our objective of constructing a total of 3,100 housing units," said Vaninni.

Housing is provided for around 10,000 of the most vulnerable refugees, displaced persons, and returnees thanks to the Regional Housing Programme, which has a budget of 123 million KM in Bosnia and Herzegovina. So far, 1,900 family homes and 890 apartments in multi-apartment buildings have been constructed.

Mustafic Senaid, father of four children, refugee from Milići municipality, has been living in collective accommodation since 1996."For 27 years, I have been living with my family in collective accommodation in difficult conditions. We finally have our own home,it will be easier from now on. You can see on our faces how much this means to all of us", said Senaid.

The Regional Housing Programme is established as a regional initiative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro to ensure housing for refugees and displaced persons. A total of 287 million euros has been allocated for financing housing projects and supporting the implementation of the program. The European Union is the largest donor. Other countries that contribute include the United States, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Turkey, and others.

The Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of BiH is the leading institution of the housing project, which is being implemented with the support of the OSCE, UNHCR and the Development Bank of the Council of Europe.

More information about the Regional Houisng Programme is available at web page http://regionalhousingprogramme.org/