Pictures: Mahon set to welcome first Ukrainians to new homes

A SMALL community with a big heart, Mahon is ready to welcome Ukrainian families into the first dedicated modular home development for refugees.

The site of 64 housing units at Ballinure Way is set to welcome families within the coming days, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) confirmed today.

The rapid-build housing programme was rolled out by the Government to provide accommodation for families fleeing the war in Ukraine. The programme aims to provide short-term accommodation to 2,000 Ukrainians at several sites across Ireland.

Each site will have roads, footpaths, street lighting, and community facilities, including a play area and green spaces, in line with local authority planning guidance.

The rapid-build homes will be energy efficient and durable and the sites will be developed in a way that enhances the local area, with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth providing for the management and maintenance of the homes and sites, it said.

The 64 units at the site in Mahon are the first completed of a total of 700 units that will house Ukrainian families.

Local resident and Foróige youth leader Michelle Buckley said the families, most of whom are already living in emergency accommodation in the area, will be welcomed into the community with open arms.

“We have all the services for the youth that are coming here. We have youth clubs, we have girl guides, we have a community centre that runs bingo, there’s the Mahon CDP who do a lot of activities and programmes as well; you have Mahon Rangers, and we are a very welcoming and open community,” she said.

A Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth spokesperson said families have been identified and will begin moving into their new homes in the coming days. They confirmed that the families will be moving from emergency accommodation in hotels and B&Bs locally and that those places that become available in emergency accommodation will, where necessary, be reused amid the continuing accommodation crisis.

“These are going to be people’s homes and will be very much part of the local community, which is very important, that once we all move out of here this becomes a road just like any other,” the spokesperson said.