“Despite the challenges of 2024, we still have reasons to be hopeful” | Our end of year reflection

As we approach the end of 2024, Bridget Young, NACCOM’s Director, reflects on another turbulent – but hopeful – year for our network.

“For lots of reasons, 2024 ended up being quite full-on, didn’t it? I know at NACCOM we say that every year, but it felt particularly relevant this year.

We started 2024 on a high, opening a funding programme to regrant over £370,000 to NACCOM members courtesy of the Guardian and Observer Charity appeal 2023. Through the incredible generosity of Guardian and Observer supporters, we were able to provide  29 members with unrestricted funding, more details of which will be announced in January 2025 in our Impact Report.

Despite this, the pressures on the network this year have been unprecedented and unrelenting – highlighted by two incredible, but sobering, milestones in particular; 2023/2024 was the first year that NACCOM members collectively accommodated over 4,000 people, as well as offered over half a million nights of accommodation.

Late winter and early spring saw us dealing with surges in demand, particularly from newly granted refugees being rushed out of Home Office accommodation. We continued to work together – as a national network and with wider coalitions such as Together with Refugees, Lift the Ban and the Fight the Anti-Refugee Laws Pledge – to campaign against the hostile environment.

Summer was momentous, with a general election that ushered in a change of government for the first time in 14 years, and summer riots that laid bare long-festering symptoms of deeply embedded racism and division, swiftly followed by many communities uniting in a defiant show of tolerance and peace.

The second part of 2024 saw us all continuing to deliver the best services possible, reset our relationship with national government and deal with the ongoing fallout of the riots, deepening housing and homelessness crises and the ongoing impacts of the hostile environment.

And we had some big wins. The Rwanda Plan was scrapped. The Bibby Stockholm barge contract was cancelled. Parts of the Illegal Migration Act were immediately dismantled by the Labour Government. Home Office HMOs were still required to meet licensing standards. We are finally talking more openly and consistently about racism within the asylum and immigration system. We had huge interest in our recently published housing association toolkit. And we are seeing steps in the right direction towards migrant homelessness being mainstreamed, including through the (admittedly temporary) extension to the 56 day move-on period from Home Office accommodation for new refugees.

As we approach the end of 2024, things still feel daunting. We know the huge challenges that members are facing, particularly around funding and changes to National Insurance. All while continuing to meet overwhelming demand and work within an adverse policy and legislative context.

And because of that the team at NACCOM will start 2025 full of fire and focus. We will make the case for continued improvements to the move-on process, to make the most of the 56 day extension, to expand the change to everyone leaving Home Office accommodation and to make this vital reform permanent.

We will continue to advocate for the mainstreaming of migrant homelessness and for our network to be part of the solutions to the wider housing and homelessness crisis, which need to see the government follow through on in its pledges to revitalize the building of social housing and improve rights and access in the private rented sector. 

And we will continue to work with members, partners and people with lived experience to find practical solutions to housing need, improve the legal aid system, lift the ban on the right to work, and improve the funding environment for vital services.

Despite the challenges of 2024, we still have reasons to be hopeful. After all, people experiencing destitution and homelessness hold onto hope and resistance every single day. 

That’s why next year – and every year – we stand in solidarity with people suffering at the hands of our asylum and immigration system to call for systemic change. Everyone deserves to live with dignity and agency as part of their community. 

As NACCOM enters its 10th year as a registered charity, I am proud to work alongside the NACCOM family to champion our belief that no-one should face homelessness and destitution because of their immigration status, and whilst this injustice exists, we will not stop trying to change to system.”