CODE Housing – Community Development & Housing support for vulnerable groups
As of November 2022 Habitat Bulgaria restarts its housing microfinance and community support program in 6 selected locations – Targovishte, Kystendil, Botevgrad, Burgas, Rakitovo and Sliven.
The support will be allocated to vulnerable, low-income families, living in substandard housing conditions. The programme comprises several components: provision of access to small short-term interest-free loans for home improvements; deliveries of financial literacy, home-maintenance and energy efficiency training workshops for the community members; free dissemination of an educational board game, for children; re-granting to the local partner – community-based non-for profit organizations to support additional initiatives, related to improvement of the living environment and housing.
Each of the local CBOs manages Housing Microfinance Fund, designated to finance housing improvements for vulnerable families living in poor housing conditions. In 2023, the partner organizations started with a fund of 20,000 leva, which in 2024 was increased to 32,000 for each organization. The Funds is being disbursed as interest-free microloans of up to 1,500 leva untilized for small urgent house renovations such as: roof repairs, new sanitary facilities, interior improvements, energy efficiency upgrades. The beneficiary families repay them back within 12 months, in small instalments, without interest, with only a small administrative fee, so the fund constantly revolves and is available for the next people in need.
For the period 2023 – 2024 first project year the 6 partner organizations have disbursed 347 loans for a total amount of BGN 343,725, which means that the homeimprovement fund of BGN 188,000 has revolved almost twice. Thanks to this support, the living conditions of 479 families and 456 children have been improved.
In addition, the beneficiary families have the opportunity to improve their knowledge and life skills by taking part in three tailor-made training workshops: Family Budgeting Training, Home Maintenance Training, Energy Efficiency Training. The workshops were developed by Habitat Bulgaria and are adapted to the needs and learning capacity of the groups we serve. They are interactive, practice oriented and participatory. Over the past year we have organized 18 workshops with a total of 350 participants. More about the workshops: Life skills workshops
The local community will be furthermore supported via small grants to implement additional initiatives related to the living and housing conditions within the community to maximize the overall impact of the program. At the end of each project year BGN 5 000 ( approx..25 % of the housing microfinance fund) will be re-granted to social and community services offered by each of the local organizations. The services, subsidized by the program will be focused on improving the living and housing conditions in the target communities with additional measures related to community infrastructure, housing energy efficiency, energy poverty, secure tenure etc.
Thanks to this opportunity in 2024 the following initiatives were successfully completed in 2024: improved street lighting and energy consumption of families from Rakitovo and Botevgrad; better street hygiene and self-organized garbage collection in the most dilapidated part of Nadezhda district in Sliven; renovated 3 playgrounds in the village of Golyamo Novo near Targovishte, in the Iztok district in Kyustendil, and in the Rudnik district in Burgas.This sub granting opportunity maximizes the overall impact of the program as thanks to the joint efforts of Habitat Bulgaria and its partners, the families will receive a complex, holistic solution for a set of different problems.
This program is a continuation of a model for a multi-faceted community support that Habitat Bulgaria has been developing in several successive programs and initiatives since 2008, and will be active by July 2026.
Medicor Foundation is an independent and charitable foundation based in Liechtenstein. It was founded in 1995 thanks to a generous private initiative. Medicor Foundation is subject to the Liechtenstein Foundation Supervisory Authority (STIFA) and is a founding member of the Association of Charitable Foundations in Liechtenstein. In addition, Medicor Foundation is a member of the European Foundation Centre (EFC).
