Action needed to prevent a refugee homelessness crisis
Lisa Matthews, Policy and Campaigns Manager, 1st October 2024
This summer, we celebrated the good news that the Home Office would start processing asylum claims that had previously been held up in the inadmissibility and ‘Illegal’ Migration Act backlogs. Being held in limbo – with hopes and dreams on hold – is extremely unsettling for people who have claimed asylum, and we’re glad that the young people we work with can feel like their lives will be moving on and they can think about the future.
As well as celebrating, however, we felt some trepidation as we realised that we might – unless urgent action is taken – be on the brink of a new refugee homelessness crisis. When the asylum system is mismanaged, backlogs are created with tens or hundreds of thousands of people waiting for months and even years for their claims to be processed. As those backlogs are cleared, there are consequences, due to the artificially high number of decisions being made in a relatively short period of time. When people are given a positive decision on their asylum claim (they are recognised as refugees and granted refugee status) they must leave their asylum accommodation. And currently, people are not given enough time, money, or support to find a new home. This means there is a sudden surge of people facing homelessness, and not enough resources to help them. This happened last year. We don’t want it to happen again.
To prevent a new homelessness crisis happening, we need urgent action from our politicians:
1) Newly-granted refugees currently only get 28 days before they have to leave their asylum accommodation. This is not enough time to apply for universal credit, and to find a new home. The Homelessness Reduction Act recognises that 56 days is the minimum time needed to prevent homelessness – therefore the ‘move on’ period for newly-granted refugees should be extended to 56 days in line with this.
2) People who are aged under 35 receive a lower rate of housing allowance (and the vast majority of newly granted refugees are younger than 35). That rate is called the ‘shared accommodation rate’ as it is supposedly based on being able to rent a room in a shared house – and yet is nowhere near enough to pay for even a room in a shared house in London. This unworkable level of support is one of the main barriers for the young people we work with being able to find somewhere to live after being granted refugee status. However this reduced rate need not apply at all – if Home Office asylum accommodation was simply recognised as the homelessness hostels they are, meaning people moving on from asylum accommodation would be exempt from receiving the reduced support rate.
We’re asking you – as people who care as we do about young refugees – to take action. We are facing an emergency, and our political leaders need to take preventative, emergency measures to deal with it.
Write to your MP. Let them know about the crisis on the horizon and the emergency action (1 and 2 above) that needs to be taken.
You can find out who your MP is, and how to contact them, here.
You can also contact your local authority and local councillors. As Homeless Link say in their helpful resource:
“Local authority teams and councillors across the country play a key role in responding to and supporting migrants experiencing homelessness. It can therefore be highly beneficial to engage with and build a partnership with your local authority which you can draw when engaging with your MP and calling for national policy change.”
Find out how to engage your local authorities and councillors on page 5 of the Homeless Link guide.
Let us know how you get on! We’d love to hear from you if you’ve taken action to support young refugees at risk of homelessness, and if your local politicians get back to you. Message or tag us @weareyoungroots on Instagram or Twitter, or email us at media@youngroots.org.uk.