Refugees are being told to move out of asylum support housing at extremely short notice, adding to pressure faced by local authority homelessness services, more than 140 organisations have warned today.
After a policy change last month, people granted refugee status can be given just seven days’ notice to leave their accommodation, often before they have the necessary documents to access mainstream housing and benefits.
The seven-day ‘move-on’ period is ‘causing severe hardship for refugees, as well as placing unnecessary pressures on local authorities who are already facing challenges finding accommodation for other groups’, the organisations have warned the Government in an open letter.
The letter, addressed to the home secretary and the secretary for levelling up, housing and communities, urges the Government to abandon the move-on policy.
The director of signatory organisation NACCOM (The No Accommodation Network), Bridget Young, said: ‘Whilst we appreciate the urgent need to move people out of hotels and into more appropriate, community-based accommodation, the way to achieve this is not by evicting them into homelessness.
‘We know from the vital work of our frontline members, who provide temporary accommodation and destitution support, that people leaving the asylum system need adequate time, targeted support and access to timely information and resources to manage the huge transition from asylum accommodation into communities.’
