In the Rhône, a municipality offers vouchers to families who welcome Ukrainian refugees

From the start of the Ukrainian conflict, the municipality of Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu mobilized to welcome refugees or collect donations to be sent to Ukraine. It must be said that in “normal” times, this city of 4,500 inhabitants located south-east of Lyon has the habit of welcoming Ukrainians twice a year. It is indeed home to the Lyon-Lviv association which organizes concerts Happy Little Shoes, a Ukrainian choreographic ensemble made up of children.

Solidarity was immediately put in place with a call for donations and host families. About thirty volunteered to welcome 57 refugees who arrived on March 3 after a two-day journey by bus.

Two months later, the situation has deteriorated with a conflict that is bogged down. The solidarity imagined in an emergency and for the short term is in the process of being transformed. Prospects for peace and return home are dim, at least not in the immediate future. For host families, this means continuing the effort of sharing with all that this implies in terms of cohabitation and financial burdens.

The presence of additional people ends up impacting the daily budget. “Some families are running out of steam notes Anne-Marie Galayda, president of the Lyon-Lviv association, and it’s normal after two months. We have a list of families, we try to see what is wrong and find solutions”.

The solution for the moment is a voucher of 3700 euros divided between the 17 host families. Enough to ensure nearly 200 euros of shopping in the local supermarket. This is equivalent to one month of care because the monthly budget per person welcomed is estimated at €150-200.

We should be able to renew this aid regularly, but this is proving complicated for the town hall, which has managed to find generous donors for this time but difficult to claim this effort every month.

This approach raises the question of aid to host families who, throughout France, have gotten involved in receiving nearly 15,000 Ukrainians. Everyone welcomes this solidarity, the State encourages it but to date, no aid or expenses have been provided for these generous individuals.

This is not the case in other countries, such as Poland, which compensates host families up to €8 per day and per person. In England, residents who provide a room or accommodation free of charge for at least six months will receive more than four hundred euros per month.

In France, no “expenses” therefore for families. If there is help, it benefits Ukrainian refugees in the form of temporary protection which gives them rights: to stay in the country for a renewable year, to benefit from APL, health cover, the possibility of working and for children to go to school. Food aid from the Restos du Coeur is also possible, even if the refugees are staying with a host family.