War refugees from Ukraine, who are staying in Lithuania’s resorts, may soon find themselves homeless. With the start of the summer season, they will no longer be able to live in the accommodation that is normally rented to holidaymakers.
There are currently around 600 Ukrainian refugees staying in Lithuania’s seaside resort of Palanga, with another 70 housed in Neringa.
According to Neringa Mayor Darius Jasaitis, most landlords agreed to accommodate Ukrainian refugees in Lithuanian resorts, hoping that they will only stay there temporarily.
“The first mistake was to grant [the Ukrainians] a temporary residence permit for three months. So, people accepted them for three months, thinking that they needed help and that they would leave,” Jasaitis said.
“The problem is terribly acute, and it will be a great shame for the city and for us,” he added.
For some Neringa residents, renting accommodation to holidaymakers is the only source of income, so they cannot afford to house Ukrainians throughout the summer, the mayor said.
According to him, the situation could be resolved if the Ukrainian refugees were moved to the state-owned holiday residences in Neringa and other Lithuanian resorts.
“We point fingers at the buildings that sit empty for 10 months only for the staff of ministries and other institutions to come and stay in the summer. […] People are helping, but public buildings are still locked and empty,” Jasaitis said.
Big problem
Palanga Mayor Šarūnas Vaitkus also said that some Ukrainians currently staying in the resort will be forced to look for new accommodation in the summer.
“Some housing is provided until May, some until June. This is a big problem,” the mayor said.
According to him, most Ukrainian refugees have already settled into the community, found jobs, while their children started school in Palanga. But it might be difficult to find alternative accommodation for those who will lose their temporary housing because rent prices tend to increase significantly in the summer.
Unless the authorities intervene, Ukrainians will have to move to other Lithuanian cities and try to settle there, Vaitkus said.
Representatives of other municipalities in Western Lithuania say that it might be difficult to move Ukrainian refugees there due to a lack of accommodation.
There are currently around 200 Ukrainians staying in Kretinga municipality, and some 50 more could be housed in the Business and Technology School dormitory. However, these premises are kept for the worst-case scenario as they “are not ideally equipped”, according to Kretinga District Mayor Antanas Kalnius.
Lithuania’s port city Klaipėda is also running out of accommodation to offer to the Ukrainians, so more refugees are choosing to stay in the Klaipėda district.
But Klaipėda district will not be able to house Ukrainians moved out of Palanga or Neringa either because it only has accommodation suitable for short stays, according to the district mayor Bronius Markauskas
“We could take people from Palanga to some community centre, and then look again for where they should go next. But I think we should be looking for where people could stay longer because you cannot keep sending them around like that,” he said.
Palanga authorities have already spoken to representatives of some ministries and proposed that at least part of the state-owned buildings in the resort be used for accommodating Ukrainian refugees.
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