For the past two and a half years the city of Coventry has stepped up to support the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
The programme encourages UK residents to sponsor and host a person or a family from Ukraine and offer them a spare room.
Coventry residents responded immediately with hundreds of expressions of interest in the scheme and the first two arrivals in Coventry were on the 27 March 2022, a short time after the scheme was announced.
Coventry was overwhelmed with offers of help and soon Ukrainian guests started arriving. The city has now welcomed its 500th guest to the city.
Cllr David Welsh, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that the scheme has so worked well in Coventry because we have always been a welcoming city – that’s down to the spirit and compassion of local people.
“Many Ukrainians have found work and are now living independently renting their own properties, which is really good news.
“The stories of resilience are inspiring to hear about and I’d like to thank everyone in the city who has supported the scheme.”
There are still people wanting to come to Coventry and it is not too late to volunteer.
If you would like to help, please email H4Uteam@coventry.gov.uk
In return they were offered a ‘thank you’ payment of £350 per month.
To mark the milestone, we want to focus on the experiences of a few of our Coventry hosts and guests to share their personal stories, and will highlight these over the next few days.
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia was on 24 February 2022, and the UK Government put together two schemes to support people wanting to flee Ukraine to safety.