NACCOM is a national network of over 130 frontline organisations and charities across the UK, working together to end destitution amongst people seeking asylum, refugees and other migrants who aren’t able to access to public funds because of their immigration status.
We do this by campaigning collectively for a fairer, more humane immigration system that doesn’t leave people destitute, and by sharing our learning, innovation, and resources across our membership to increase the level of accommodation provision and support the network is able to provide.
We have been a national charity (CIO No: 1162434) since 2015 and an informal network of voluntary organisations since 2006.
Our history
The No Accommodation Network – later to become known as NACCOM – was initiated in 2006 by Dave Smith of the Boaz Trust to bring together projects supporting destitute people seeking asylum. At the time, Boaz Trust was one of a growing number of volunteer-led initiatives organising practical responses to the needs of destitute people seeking asylum in the early 2000s, following successive changes to immigration legislation coupled with systems failures, which increased levels of destitution in the asylum and immigration system.
Some of these grassroots initiatives developed accommodation projects for people seeking asylum and other migrants with no recourse to public funds (NRPF), who are locked out of most statutory support and have no resources to pay for accommodation and other costs. Accommodation provides a base enabling other practical assistance, in particular advice and casework support, to be more effective in supporting pathways out of destitution.
NACCOM came together as a means of helping to coordinate and join up these initiatives, through shared learning and resources, and by providing mutual support and encouragement.
In addition, NACCOM members wanted to use their direct experience of alleviating destitution to campaign collectively, and with other organisations, to bring about policy change for a better and more humane asylum and immigration system that did not leave people destitute.
NACCOM today has over 130 members across the UK, and there are new organisations developing accommodation initiatives in different parts of the country every year.