Gaza Emergency Shelter Rehabilitation and Winterization

Emergency Shelter Rehabilitation and Winterization in Gaza

An engineering-led humanitarian response to restore safety and stability for affected families

232 housing units rehabilitated around 1,200 people back in safe homes before the peak of winter

When a home is damaged, a family loses far more than walls and a roof. It loses its sense of safety, its privacy, its dignity. In the Japanese Neighbourhood of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, hundreds of families were facing a harsh winter inside houses with exposed roofs, cracked walls, and broken utilities where rainwater ingress and severed water and sewage connections became a daily threat to health and safety.

In response, SAFE delivered the Emergency Shelter Rehabilitation and Winterization Project, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme / Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP), funded by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and in full coordination with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing.

Project Objectives

The project focuses on improving living conditions for families whose homes were partially damaged, through urgent engineering interventions that rehabilitate housing units and reduce weather-related risk. It aims to:

• Rehabilitate damaged homes and make them safer and fit for habitation
• Winterize housing and reduce the risks posed by rain and cold
• Restore essential household services for a more stable and dignified life
• Prioritise the most vulnerable: female-headed households, large families, and persons with disabilities
• Support early recovery efforts and strengthen local community resilience

Impact in Numbers

• 232 housing units fully rehabilitated 16% above the contractual target of 200 units, with no additional funding
• Around 1,200 beneficiaries returned to safe housing, 44% of them children
• 42 female-headed households and 51 persons with disabilities among the beneficiary families, reflecting a documented priority for the most vulnerable
• Over 600 housing units technically assessed in the field in just 15 working days, ensuring beneficiary selection against precise, transparent eligibility criteria
• Full restoration of water and sewage connections in every single rehabilitated unit, without exception

How Did 200 Units Become 232 ?

The answer is disciplined financial and contract management. Competitive procurement managed by SAFE generated close to USD 45,000 in savings, reinvested in full with the funding partner's approval into rehabilitating 32 additional housing units. Every dollar saved through efficient management was converted directly into a roof protecting a family from the rain.

Delivery took place in the heart of winter, from November through February, in one of the most difficult humanitarian operating environments in the world with full adherence to agreed timelines and the final report submitted to the partner within the required deadline.

Scope of Engineering Works

The project delivered an integrated package of rehabilitation works, designed according to the damage level of each individual unit:

• Structural repairs and restoration of roofs and walls
• Repair of doors and windows and sealing of water and cold ingress points
• Rehabilitation of water and sewage networks
• Repair of kitchens and bathrooms and restoration of essential household services
• Winterization works to strengthen each home's resistance to severe weather

SAFE's Role

SAFE led every phase of the project through its specialised engineering and social teams: field technical assessment of homes, social verification of family needs and beneficiary selection against clear eligibility criteria, preparation of designs and bills of quantities, then direct engineering supervision, quality control, inspections, and final handover a complete delivery system under one roof.

Because accountability to beneficiaries is part of SAFE's identity, a community complaints and response mechanism operated throughout the project. All 24 grievances received were resolved without exception, at an average response time of 4.5 working days — including re-assessment of cases and the addition of further units to the eligibility lists.

SAFE also maintained close, continuous coordination with partners and relevant government bodies, ensuring efficient implementation, high-quality results, and delivery to the families most in need.

Impact

The project provided safer, more stable housing for affected families, reduced winter-related risks, and brought essential household utilities back into service restoring a family's sense of safety, privacy, and dignity.

More broadly, the project forms one link in the early recovery chain: families returned home, the effects of displacement reduced, living conditions improved, and local communities better able to withstand what comes next.

Partnership That Builds Recovery

The project is a working model of what partnership between national and international institutions can achieve: local Palestinian engineering expertise, Arab funding, UN oversight, and a single result family back in their homes before the peak of winter. It forms part of a growing partnership portfolio between SAFE and UNDP spanning debris management, transitional shelter, and support to the most vulnerable across the Gaza Strip's governorates.

We invite our partners and donors to build on this model and scale it. Thousands of families in the Gaza Strip are still waiting for a roof that protects them.