Housing and Migration Network Urges Help for Destitute Migrants

The Housing and Migration Network is urging social landlords to make a difference to the lives of destitute asylum seekers and other migrants in the UK.  To help do this the Network has launched a destitution pack highlighting how housing associations and charities can work together to provide short-term housing, as well as the support needed to prevent homelessness. The destitution pack has been developed to help, in particular, destitute asylum seekers who have no access to public funds but who have some prospect of regularising their status. Destitute migrants are often living in limbo as they are unable to work and provide for themselves and may be denied healthcare. Many sleep rough or stay with family or friends in overcrowded accommodation which can have a detrimental effect on the neighbourhood.  Read more on the HACT website.

Migrants Should Be Given Housing Priority

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has recommended that migrants should be given priority by housing providers. A guide it has published - Housing and Migration: A guide to issues and solutions - on behalf of the Housing and Migration Network recognises that migrants are now a key client group for most housing organisations. Two years of research went into the guide which looks at the pressure that migration has put on the UK housing market. John Perry, policy advisor for CIH and author of the guide, said: “Housing providers need to know more about new communities that exist in the areas in which they work in so they can adequately deliver the appropriate services.” Download a copy of the report from the CIH website.

Benefit Cuts Will Require Extra Support for Migrants

Changes to housing benefit mean government ministers, social housing providers and private landlords need to give more help to migrants, a new report has found. The Housing and Migration Network says welfare reform means it is more important than ever to make sure migrants are living in acceptable housing. It says poor housing in the private sector, where 75 per cent of migrants live, can fuel neighbourhood problems and local tensions. The report, hi, says solutions that incentivise good landlords but are tough on bad landlords - including licensing schemes and local lettings schemes - could improve the PRS. Neighbourhood relations may deteriorate if action is not taken, the report warns, as houses in multiple occupation can instigate a range of environmental problems if landlords fail to manage the property adequately. Download a copy of the report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.