Local authorities and voluntary organisations are demonstrating how to prevent rough sleeping among refugees, but are being undermined by Home Office asylum policies, according to a new report from NACCOM and Homeless Link.
The report highlights how local areas are preventing homelessness by working in partnership and using the period before and after an asylum decision to provide clear information and support to help people access housing, benefits, English language learning and employment support.
However, the national policy backdrop is working against this good practice. Policies including the new 42-day asylum move-on period and introduction of a ‘core protection’ model, rules preventing people from working whilst they await a decision on their claim and making refugee status temporary and subject to review every 30 months are undermining the Government’s drive to end rough sleeping.
To address these issues, the report sets out principles for practice for local authorities and their partners, alongside recommendations for national government. These will enable local areas across the country to replicate the successful initiatives already in place and ensure that they are supported by a national framework that provides refugees with the support they need to put down roots, find work and contribute to local communities.
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The principles for Practice include ensuring support begins well before asylum decisions are made, consistent support following the decision, and the development of deliberate, trusted partnerships across organisational boundaries. Decisions and support measures should be informed by those with lived experience, with strong co-ordination between organisations involved throughout the process.
The report also issued a number of recommendations to government to assist local authorities efforts rather than undermine them. Amongst these recommendations is the extension of the move-on period to at least 56 days, the creation of automatic local authority notifications when people are placed in asylum accommodation and when decisions are made and the development of a national joined-up approach to preventing refugee homelessness, across housing, health, employment, benefits and integration services.
Bridget Young, Director of NACCOM, said: “Being granted refugee status should be a moment of safety and relief. Instead, too many people are being pushed onto the streets within weeks of receiving protection. Our report shows it doesn’t have to be this way.
“Across the country, councils and voluntary organisations are doing remarkable work to stop refugees ending up homeless. They are preparing people while they are still in asylum accommodation, providing proactive housing support as soon as a decision arrives, and helping people gain the training, skills and experience they need to find work.
“The Prime Minister has rightly made ending rough sleeping his first priority. To meet that goal, the Government must stem the flow of homelessness from the asylum system. That means learning from this local practice and backing it with the changes only national government can make: a longer move-on period for everyone receiving a decision on an asylum claim, clear communication and notification when decisions are made, the right to work for people seeking asylum, and proper funding for the local services already proving what works.”
Rick Henderson, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness services, commented: “It is astounding that with so much at stake for people’s lives and our communities, the Government is not working in a collaborative and coordinated way, but instead continues to produce policies that are creating predictable routes to rough sleeping and destitution among refugees, undermining its own rough sleeping ambitions.
“However, our new report shows that there is much that can be done to ensure that refugees can put down roots, find work and contribute to local communities. Pockets of local good practice demonstrate that by partnership working, acting early and helping people access housing, benefits, English language learning and employment support, homelessness can be prevented.
“Now these local areas need support at a national level, and we are calling on government to act upon our recommendations for change so that refugees receive the support they need and the Government’s drive to end rough sleeping can be realised.”
