Lease agreement for refugee housing

To meet the increased housing needs created by the newly-arrived refugees after 2015, in 2016 the state launched a scheme funded by the European Commission which would provide housing to refugees and asylum seekers in temporary accommodation facilities, shelters and leased dwellings. Thirteen reception facilities/camps were established in the wider area of Thessaloniki, for which the state utilised former military and industrial facilities. In the summer of 2016, these facilities were hosting 14,867 refugees, the highest number during their operation (Coordinating Centre for the Management of the Refugee Crisis, 2016). In addition, through the REACT scheme (Refugee Assistance Collaboration Thessaloniki) and with the assistance of NGOs and local municipalities, 780 apartments were leased in the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki which could accommodate 3,500 to 4,000 people. Of these, 87 apartments which could accommodate 477 people are located in the Municipality of Neapoli-Sikies.

This is the lease agreement for an apartment in the Municipality of Neapoli-Sikies. The length of the lease is June 9 2016 to June 30 2017, and it was signed by the civil non-profit company ‘ARSIS – Association for the Social Support of Youth’ and an apartment owner. The apartment would house refugees as part of the implementation of the ‘Relocation & Reception’ scheme funded by the European Commission through the UNCHR (project ID: GRC01/2016/0000000060/000), which aimed to provide temporary housing to vulnerable refugees or refugees bound for relocation to other European countries. According to the lease agreement, the 60-square-metre apartment is on the 3^rd floor and can house up to 8 persons. The rent is set at 350 euros.

The apartment is located in the Municipality of Neapoli-Sikies, on a plot between Eleftheriou Venizelou Street and Foti Katsari Street. The apartment building was erected in 1975. The plot, which is near the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the area of Ano Poli, had been granted to Asia Minor refugees after the population exchange of 1922. Its owners had built a single-storey house which was torn down and an apartment building was erected in its place in 1975 through the system of ‘antiparochi’ (the practice of offering land owners apartments in the finished building in exchange for their land). According to the oral testimony of the owner, from the mid-1990s until 2016, the apartment had mainly been rented by Albanian migrants, while from 2016 until today it has housed refugees, mostly from Syria. The owner chose to include her apartment in the housing scheme because she was particularly sensitive to the plight of refugees.