Blog | Evictions into homelessness – the ongoing ‘move-on’ emergency facing people leaving the asylum system

Homelessness amongst refugees leaving the asylum system has been on the rise over the last year, in large part due to a change in process to the asylum move-on period, introduced by the Home Office in August 2023 (but since reversed), which left many newly granted refugees suddenly facing homelessness when their accommodation and support was abruptly ended after their grant of status.

As we head into Spring 2024, the outlook for new refugees leaving the asylum system, and the organisations that support them, is still extremely challenging. In this blog, we look at the impact of what is widely regarded as an ongoing refugee homelessness emergency, how this continues to impact frontline services, and how other groups of people exiting the asylum system – those who have been refused, and those whose claims have been withdrawn – are also being left increasingly vulnerable to homelessness due to pressures on both statutory and voluntary services.

Background

In August 2023, as part of the Government’s plans to clear the asylum backlog, reduce the use of hotels, and relieve pressure on the asylum estate, the Home Office initiated an administrative change around the ending of asylum support for newly granted refugees (asylum support ‘cessations’), which resulted in large numbers of people exiting asylum accommodation at pace – and, in many cases, directly into homelessness.

As NACCOM reported at the time, the process change meant that many new refugees were being given as little as seven days’ notice (instead of the standard ‘move-on’ period of 28 days) that their asylum support, including their accommodation, would cease. With just one week to find alternative accommodation and employment, and access the complex Universal Credit system, many refugees found themselves evicted with nowhere to go, and no immediate means of support.

Understandably, these evictions into homelessness caused severe hardship, uncertainty and distress for many new refugees, at what should be a moment of joy upon receiving their status. It has also had far-reaching implications for both frontline statutory and voluntary homelessness services and accommodation providers, including members of the NACCOM network, which is ongoing in 2024.

Against a backdrop of rising national homelessness and a local government funding crisis, the sudden surge in homelessness amongst refugees has placed huge additional pressures on Local Authorities, who are already facing considerable challenges finding temporary accommodation for other groups, as well as stretched voluntary sector accommodation and support providers, including NACCOM members, who continue to see higher than average referral rates for their services.

Commenting in August 2023, Bridget Young, NACCOM’s Director, said: “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 enable them to manage the huge transition from asylum accommodation into communities. Giving people as little as seven days’ notice creates stress and anxiety, and forces people to make crisis decisions, with many having no option but to seek homelessness assistance, or to rough sleep if they are unable to access emergency support.”

Evidence from the NACCOM network

Voluntary services play a vital role in providing safety, shelter and stability to people leaving the asylum system. In 2022-2023, the impact of homelessness amongst refugees was already being acutely felt across NACCOM’s network of frontline members, with capacity severely stretched due to high demand for homelessness and destitution support from people in the asylum and immigration system.

Hosting and housing schemes across our network accommodated at least 864 refugee adults (excluding dependents) last year (2022-2023) – 33% more than in the previous year, and 54% more than in 2020-2021.

The increased pressure caused by the escalating refugee homelessness emergency has had a profound impact on member service provision, with some NACCOM members reporting that referral rates had more than tripled during August 2023, compared to the same period the previous year.

One NACCOM member, the Boaz Trust, recently reported that in 2023 they saw an 102% increase in the number of referrals for accommodation for people with refugee status, with a doubling of referrals in the second half of last year.

The situation now (Spring 2024)

Despite the Government reversing the move-on process change in Autumn 2023, reverting to the standard 28-days that was in place previously, large numbers of newly recognised refugees continue to exit the asylum system, with the transition out of asylum accommodation still proving extremely challenging and precarious for many, given the ongoing pressures on both Local Authorities and voluntary support and accommodation providers. The risks of homelessness during the move-on period are also compounded by other factors that make new refugees particularly vulnerable to homelessness during this period, as NACCOM has previously highlighted.

Key Government data, released in February 2024, paints a devastating picture of the impact that the increased level of asylum support cessations has had on rates of homelessness and rough sleeping across the UK, within the context of increased move-on from asylum accommodation.

The latest statistics from the Home Office reveal that between October and December 2023, 46,572 initial decisions were made on asylum applications; the most in a single quarter since 2001.

In addition to an increased number of positive decisions, the Government’s quarterly asylum statistics for Q4 2023 also show a steep rise in withdrawals and refusals over the past year, compared to the previous year. Anecdotal evidence from the network suggests this is a growing area of concern amongst members (see below).

There were 19,997 refusals during the Q4 2023 period – nearly 10 times higher than in the same period for 2022.
There were 9,087 withdrawn claims – nearly four times higher than the same period for 2022.

New data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, highlights the link between the increase in asylum move-on and a rise in homelessness and rough sleeping;

Rough sleeping data shows a 965% increase over about six months in people sleeping rough after leaving asylum accommodation in England, jumping from 42 people in July 2023 to 469 by December 2023.
While data from London Councils, which represents boroughs in the capital, shows that in January 311 people were forced to sleep rough in London after leaving Home Office accommodation, up 41% from November 2023 and 117% from October 2023.
Statutory homelessness data for England shows that 920 households were owed a prevention duty after being required to leave asylum accommodation – an increase of 109% from same quarter in previous year, while 2,370 households were owed a relief duty after being required to leave asylum accommodation – an increase of 204% from same quarter in previous year.

What our members are seeing

In February 2024, NACCOM asked members providing services to refugees how key aspects of their service delivery had been impacted by the increase in refugees leaving asylum accommodation. Whilst some members reported that referral rates from newly granted refugees were still high, others reported that, even though referral rates had now stabilised, the increased demand for their services from refugees had knock-on impacts for their service provision more widely;

➡️ “We are…receiving referrals for and are seeing at dropins newly granted refugees who are homeless and rough sleeping. Our service can’t assist these people as they don’t need immigration advice, but this is taking up the time of our partners who work with homeless migrants.”

➡️ “Our Caseworkers are meeting/working with a high number of young people who have been granted asylum and are now homeless. While the pre December spike had been people approaching [us] with notices to quit (and fairly short notice periods – around 10 days was fairly common) our caseworkers are now seeing more young people who are *already* homeless. They are approaching our frontline staff at our youth clubs/drop-ins, which are specifically for residents of asylum hotels and/or in the hotels when we run outreach sessions (even though they no longer have a room there, they are spending time there).”

➡️ “We have received 26 referrals in January (2024) up until now (29th January) – these are only the referrals we’ve officially received for accommodation and don’t capture the numbers of people contacting us directly (by phone, email, at the office etc) who are in need of support – this has been almost daily throughout January.”

➡️ “Overall referrals requests/calls to our helpline were up from 552 to 667 in the period August-December 2023 compared to the year before.”

➡️ “We have had to close our waiting list January 2024 for one month as we have so many people on our waiting list.”

➡️ “We are noticing partner agencies are also under more pressure and taking longer to provide support. Whether it’s legal/immigration advice, mental health support, physical health (dentists!). Waiting lists are longer and organisaions are stretched; this means more pressure on the ground. It keeps getting harder for asylum seekers to access support they desperately need.”

Insights from the network also highlight a growing concern around the rates of people with ‘unsuccessful’ asylum claims (refusals) exiting the system, as well as those who have received a ‘withdrawal’. In both cases, numbers have been rising over the past few months, as the Government continues to clear the asylum backlog at pace.

In our February cessations survey, some members reported how frontline services now had limited capacity to support these groups, given the overwhelming and ongoing impacts of the refugee homelessness emergency on support and accommodation provision;

➡️ “While the majority of people we are working with who are leaving the asylum system because of a grant of status, we are also working with an increased number of people who have been refused (a small increase, but the previous number was basically zero as everyone’s cases were stuck in the backlog). We are not working with many people who have had their asylum claims withdrawn, though of course know many other organisations are.”

➡️ “We haven’t seen a change in the number of people whose asylum case was refused or withdrawn, what has changed is that those people are getting evicted from their accommodation faster so are more likely to be homeless than they were earlier in the year.”

➡️ “We’ve…noticed a longer wait for section 4 applications to be processed. As a result residents are waiting longer to move on and so those on the waiting list are waiting longer to get a bed space.”

What is NACCOM doing?

Over the past six months, NACCOM has been working with members and key partners in the homelessness and refugee sectors, using evidence and insights from the network to raise awareness of the impact of refugee homelessness on both individuals and support organisations, and to call for urgent action from the Government, through a range of briefings, resources and via platforms including the APPG for Ending Homelessness.

They are built on a set of key policy and process recommendations, which we believe are essential to mitigating both the immediate and long-term risks of homelessness facing people leaving the asylum system, as well as funding, supporting and empowering frontline statutory and voluntary services working with refugees and others leaving the asylum system.

These include:

➡️ Commit to extend the move-on period to at least 56 days, for all people leaving the asylum system. This would be in line with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 in England and would create a central and consistent minimum standard across asylum support in the UK.

️➡️ Ensure that people leaving asylum support receive all their documentation at once, so that they can make tangible move-on plans as early as possible. All documentation should arrive together; a person’s decision letter; their cessation letter (letter containing the date when their asylum support will end); their notice to quit their accommodation (NTQ); and their BRP where applicable.

➡️ Delay and stagger evictions from asylum accommodation. We appreciate that there is a need to free up asylum accommodation for others who are entitled to it, and that the continued processing of asylum claims is vital. However, to manage pressures on statutory and voluntary services, cessations must be delayed and staggered. The number of cessations and timeframe of these cessations should be clearly communicated with local services to help them manage expected demand.

➡️ ️ Commit to working with the third sector to jointly create a comprehensive and properly funded transition process for people whose asylum support is due to end, that enables information and support around housing and benefits to be given as far in advance as possible.

For our full set of recommendations, see our original statement.