Birmingham City Council is planning to buy up to 50 homes to provide temporary accommodation for displaced Afghans and Ukrainians.
Its cabinet will next week consider a report saying funding from the Government’s £500m local authority housing fund would enable it to resettle 80-120 people over the next two financial years.
But it would be used as temporary accommodation and the residents would ‘not be given priority for long-term social housing compared to families who are homeless for other reasons’, the council said.
Birmingham says it has already committed to welcoming a total of 300 Afghan citizens under the Government’s resettlement scheme, of which around 150 have already arrived in the city.
The new project would be aimed at Ukrainians who have been made homeless following the breakdown of their arrangements under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Sharon Thompson, cabinet member for housing and homelessness, said: ‘Following the start of war in Ukraine last February, the city council took on an obligation to house families displaced by that conflict as well as the previous one in Afghanistan.
‘Buying these homes will help us fulfil that obligation and increase our ability, as a local authority, to help any Ukrainian guests who become homeless following the breakdown of their arrangements under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
‘These homes will be used for temporary accommodation and will not give any of the families greater priority under our allocation policy than other homeless families.
‘We are also in the process of building and buying properties on the open markets, especially larger family homes, for those people currently on our waiting list.’
