Where will the refugees coming to the UK live?

[Meeklynamechanged]

In no way a goady thread, I fully support helping the people fleeing such horrid circumstances, but genuine question.. where will they live? Where do we put people?

Where I live we have people waiting 10 years for a council property. Most areas around the UK have a huge deficit in available housing that doesn't meet demand.

With so many families stuck in overcrowded hostels and B&B's, families of 5 in 1 bed flats, I can't see where all of the required the housing will come from?

I'm with you. I have the utmost sympathy for refugees but I wouldn't want to be on my own with a traumatised adult male.
I plan to donate to charities that will support people, buy I'm not willing to be put at risk myself.

@Skybluepinkgiraffe that's entirely reasonable. If I was single and in a position to host someone, I'd go with women only. As it is, it's me and DH so we feel reasonably comfortable with having men or women. No-one needs to justify not doing this, it's so obviously not for everyone for so many reasons.

There are so many social problems in this thread which are caught up in "housing", but none of them actually have that one solution. Homelessness is caused by so many factors, only some of which can be resolved by giving people a roof over their heads - there are issues for ongoing support for eg DV victims, care leavers, Army veterans, refugees. What all of these problems have in common is that they're difficult and expensive to fix, and need a wholesale policy change and funding from the top to even begin. Instead it's being patched together by charities and local authorities who can't afford to do it as well as it needs to be done.

@Jellycatspyjamas

I'm not saying they should not come here at all buy join the que like we all have to.

They aren’t even in the queue, they’re housed out of a central budget not in homes available to the general public, they don’t get to join the queue unless and until their claim for asylum is granted which can take years. Years of living on less than subsistence funds, in substandard accommodation from which they can be moved at any point for any reason, years of ploughing through the endless red tape, while living with the prejudice and discrimination punted by mainstream media courtesy of the Tory hostile environment policy. After god knows what has happened in their home country.

Yes there are huge social issues in the U.K. but those could be largely resolved by investment in services, which the government refuses to do in favour of keeping the rich richer - and for some reason we keep voting for it. The erosion of social support is horrendous but the answer to that lies in Westminster, not in the dinghies crossing the Chanel, nor on the tarmac at Kabul airport.

Well said.

@LoislovesStewie

Once an asylum seeker becomes a refugee, i.e. they are given leave to remain, then they can approach the local authority for assistance with housing, in fact the accommodation provided while they are asylum seekers will be terminated, and they will, in all likelihood, present as homeless

Yes but as @Jellycatspyjamas, they go to the back of the queue. There is no queue jumping for refugees.

And only 353 were settled refugees between March 2020 to March 2021.

Hardly thousands or millions is it?

Have I missed something ? Has Boris made a speech and asked young women to host men who have just escaped from Afghanistan ,leaving the women behind?

@sadperson16

Have I missed something ? Has Boris made a speech and asked young women to host men who have just escaped from Afghanistan ,leaving the women behind?

No, people were talking about offering their spare rooms for refugees. A poster asked if the refugees were mostly male, and was jumped on for asking the question.

And if they are given leave to remain, they get to join the same queue as everyone else and start all over again

A PP upthread said it would take years before they are given leave to remain. So yes, they would have in practice been given priority for many years over other UK citizens already waiting.

And it doesn't matter that it's different housing stock or budgets, we all share the same space and same taxes overall.

@sadperson16

Have I missed something ? Has Boris made a speech and asked young women to host men who have just escaped from Afghanistan ,leaving the women behind?

Nope, but you would think so looking at all the 'not in my house' responses here.

@mustlovegin

And if they are given leave to remain, they get to join the same queue as everyone else and start all over again

A PP upthread said it would take years before they are given leave to remain. So yes, they would have in practice been given priority for many years over other UK citizens already waiting.

And it doesn't matter that it's different housing stock or budgets, we all share the same space and same taxes overall.

How do you figure that? You only get to join the queue AFTER you get leave to remain. So how have they been given priority?

[quote phishy]@LoislovesStewie

Once an asylum seeker becomes a refugee, i.e. they are given leave to remain, then they can approach the local authority for assistance with housing, in fact the accommodation provided while they are asylum seekers will be terminated, and they will, in all likelihood, present as homeless

Yes but as @Jellycatspyjamas, they go to the back of the queue. There is no queue jumping for refugees.

And only 353 were settled refugees between March 2020 to March 2021.

Hardly thousands or millions is it?[/quote]
But they don't necessarily go to the back of the queue. They present as homeless and if they qualify by being; eligible, homeless, in priority need, not homeless intentionally and with a local connection then they will be housed. They will be eligible as they are given leave to remain, they are homeless as the accommodation they have lived in will no longer be available, if they are in priority need then local connection will be if they were in the borough already(usually). Once they qualify as homeless then they are given that priority which often means the highest band for Choice Based Lettings. So, in that respect, they have 'jumped the queue'. I am explaining how the system works, BTW.

@LoislovesStewie what's your source, everything I've read - Citizens Advice Bureau, etc, says they join the back of the queue?

If they present as homeless they’ll be given the same temporary accommodation as everyone else on the list. The same hostel accommodation, scatter flats, etc etc as everyone else. The fact that they’ve spent years in temporary accommodation while going through the asylum system carries no weight, they’re homeless so will go through the same process of temporary housing while waiting for a more permanent place.

Apologies if someone has already said this but last night Andy Burnham was interviewed about the situation. He said Manchester would of course house more refugees but 15% of all refugees/asylum seekers in recent years had already been settled in the area and maybe it was time for the whole of the UK to also see if they could offer help.
I thought he made a good point. Before anyone says 85% must have been found homes too, I would like to bet not many in the more picturesque towns and villages of the UK.

Local authorities have a housing register, people who are eligible join the register and are awarded priority according to their circumstances. Those who are accepted as homeless will usually be in the highest band, it is as simple as that.

@Blossomtoes

Currently Balmoral is being used to 'hide Andrew' from a legitimate legal investigation

Balmoral is the Queen’s personal property. Even if this snide remark was true, she can do what the fuck she likes with it.

Calm down, Fergie 😂

Housing will have to be offered across the country - not just major cities.
Sounds like some posters are happy for them to come in to the U.K. so long as it is not in their pretty middle class village?

@Winniewonka

Apologies if someone has already said this but last night Andy Burnham was interviewed about the situation. He said Manchester would of course house more refugees but 15% of all refugees/asylum seekers in recent years had already been settled in the area and maybe it was time for the whole of the UK to also see if they could offer help. I thought he made a good point. Before anyone says 85% must have been found homes too, I would like to bet not many in the more picturesque towns and villages of the UK.

It's good for them to maintain some sort of support network etc, villages are obviously smaller than cities etc and less access to support and amenities that they need, so I don't think it's overly surprising or outrageous that cities settle more. Having a few in a picturesque town by themselves isn't ideal, of course a lot of people will say ah but at least they're safe which is true; but it's more complex than that.

@MrsJuliaGulia

I presume those arriving from Afghanistan will be classified as high priority, especially if the UK invites them to live here. Which would mean they’d jump to the top of the housing queues and be housed immediately, or have their private accommodation paid for by the councils to which they’ve been sent.

You presume wrong. SIL runs a charity for refugees; they (SIL and her three siblings) have had to buy three flats to house the women as LA won't even provide a safe night shelter - in an area with lots of housing and low population. Please can we have a bit less of the "furriners jumping housing queue" UKIP bigotry?

who were miraculously found accommodation for lockdown

In hotels which usually are full of paying guests.

@entropynow (tagged because I can’t quote) whereabouts is this? What was the justification for the LA not providing shelter?

The thread has lots of facts assumptions etc flying around but in most cases it depends on the LA and the goodwill of the existing residents. I’d be interested to here how it works by area depending on which channel the refugees came in from .

It's not their private residence
Now Sandringham and Balmoral on the other hand......(although you wouldn't want to bump into a certain bloke at Balmoral..)

Exactly - it's ours. So we should offer up this empty council house to help others.
Repeatedly we are told the Queen does not like Buck House, so stays in Windsor and Charles has no intention of living there - he has and St James Palace,. William and Kate have Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall. They all have countless other properties to choose from - but we the people own many of them.
It's ridiculous that this situation exists at all.

To those obsessed with the Royal Family, please give over

Please can we have a bit less of the "furriners jumping housing queue" UKIP bigotry?

I recall watching a reality TV documentary following people looking for social housing in Portsmouth. Every person featured who were waiting for a home (many who kept refusing the ones they were offered) would beat that immigrants were getting all the good homes and that’s why they were left being offered these places. They weren’t slummy type properties, one woman refused a second floor flat because she didn’t like heights. They also spoke to those working in the housing dept and they were explaining what the problems with the stock were. The figure they gave was that 95% of the council housing in the area was occupied by British born people.

They featured a migrant who was living on the streets, he applied for a job but needed an address and despite the fact he was living rough, he wasn’t eligible for a council property immediately.

There is a lot of misinformation peddled by the tabloids and UKIP. Sadly people believe it rather than actually looking in to find out the other side of the story.

We have offered up to 3m people from Hong Kong rights to come here too. We are going to need an awful lots of houses or hostels for them.

@Jellycatspyjamas

A review of accommodation for asylum seekers found that 75% of accommodate provided was substandard, described as damp, dirty and vermin infested, the accommodation was particularly deemed unsuitable for pregnant women, women who had experienced domestic abuse and those who had experienced torture.

I imagine the situation is worse post covid. These people aren't being housed in even acceptable accommodation, much less accommodation that is safe, clean and comfortable. With no way of improving their situation through employment and no choice about where they live, or how long they live there for.

They aren't getting anything better - if anything its often measurably worse. And if they are given leave to remain, they get to join the same queue as everyone else and start all over again.

I just want to show you theses pictures from my temporary accommodation. It will only let me do 3 so will have to be separate posts .

The Mayors of Liverpool, Manchester and West Yorkshire have announced that they will take the Afghans but calling on all areas of the U.K. to offer support.