To dump my Ukrainian guests as homeless?

[razzbo]

It's not as evil as it sounds, bear with me. They have been living with me for 6 months and their jobs here have ended. I live in a very rural place, they don't drive and don't speak English. There is basically no chance of them getting other jobs here. The jobs they had here were given out of charity to be honest. They have found new jobs in Scotland - all 3 of them working in the same place, full time, £10 an hour, where there are other Ukrainians. Which I think they are very lucky to get considering they speak no English.

So we looked at finding them somewhere to rent but they looked at the price of rent and said no. They wanted me to find them a new sponsor so they could live for free. I tried my hardest but the council said no, and facebook said no. There are no sponsors. The council said to try the housing associations for a cheap place so I tried them all. Took forever to get answers out of them but the answers were no. They still won't rent privately. Then one of the housing association people suggested I make them homeless so that they get given temporary accommodation. My guests were up for this. I phoned around and found out all the details. 5 separate council employees (both here and in Scotland) said it was an OK idea and that they would be given somewhere to live. The plan was made - I was meant to be taking them next week and leaving them there. I phoned the council in Scotland today to just check the times of the homelessness drop-in and to check whether there was anything else I needed to know. Again, all was fine.

THEN the woman phoned me back to say she'd spoken to her manager who had said that because they are in England now and are registered at my address, they can't be made homeless in Scotland (even though they have jobs there, i.e. a reason to be there). She said that if I took them to the drop-in the council would not accept responsibility for them and would not give them housing and I would actually be making them PROPERLY HOMELESS and they would be sleeping on the street.

I cried on the phone. Basically, the truth is that I have to get rid of them. I can't handle them living in my house any more. I have been so kind and nice to them but it's been too much. They won't leave unless they have jobs to go to as they just want the money. They refuse to rent. I could make them homeless here but I would have to live with them hating me and crying at me (they do this a lot to get their way) while waiting for their new accommodation.

I was so close to being free. If I'd never phoned the council today I could have just taken them to Scotland and left them and been none the wiser about it all. What should I do? If it was you, would you just take them anyway? Surely the council has a duty of care to anyone who turns up saying they are homeless? Surely if you are a homeless human being it doesn't matter which county you last lived in? Also they have a child with them. Surely they will be given somewhere to stay if I take them to the drop-in?

Please, calm down. You have done your best. Six months is more than enough to learn a language especially if you are planning to stay here for a while, talking from my own experience. They have an Ukranian hub in Edinburgh Ukranian hub Edinburgh, give them a call, they have sorted accommodation for Ukranians I have come across, they might stay on the ship docked in Edinburgh, 900 of them already on it. They also have Ukranian embassy in Edinburgh to support them. What about Universal credit? Are they on it? At the worst case scenario they can rent short term hostel, airbnb, etc, for the first few weeks.

It was madness to sign up for this in the first place. Pass this onto ordinary people to put people up, it was pretty obvious this wasn't going to be for just 6 months. I'd make them homeless whether it's here or in Scotland, let the council sort then out. As they have a child they won't be out on the street either way.

@1forthemoney2fortheroad There's a PM job going, you might actually fit the bill!

I've my sights set on Chancellor of the Exchequer I'm afraid.

@RedToothBrush and @1forthemoney2fortheroad

If they have been claiming UC it will be the living element only, not the housing element. How many people do you know on UC who have enough money left over for savings?
Why do you presume they have no expenses? Where has the OP said she is paying for all their food/clothes/travel?
Where has the OP said the temporary jobs they had here were full time?

Seriously would you go into other threads where people have temporary jobs or claim UC and tell them they have surplus money? Yes they might not be paying rent, but that's no difference to a family on UC living in a HA house and receiving a UC rental element.

OP, not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but contact the Scottish Refugee Council as they will be able to advise.

www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/info-for-ukraine-hosts-in-scotland/

For those talking about a cultural difference.... perhaps it depends on your guest. Our Ukrainian guest is 21. She spoke no English when she arrived
in our rural village In July this year. We got her a second hand bike as our bus service is rubbish. She immediately began to cycle to the nearest town for English lessons and has also been studying it on line. She wants to support her parents who are still in Ukraine because the cost of living there has rocketed. So she cycles 25 minutes to another village to work in a care home (cooking and cleaning). Once a week she cycles to yet another village to help traumatised Ukrainian children. She is also finishing her degree on line at her Ukrainian University. She is polite and absolutely lovely. For the first few weeks we fed her - she ate with us and we spoke via Google translate at the table. Now she provides her own food and cooks it, clearing up after herself. My kids were lovely, but they were far more untidy than she is. Other people in our area have found their guests are definitely not 'grabby' but hard working and a delight to have around. Yes. We're hoping to have our house back at the end of 6 months because we like our own space. But that is a fault in us - not in her. Cultural difference? Only in a really good way!

Take theM to Scotland. You've done your bit

But if they do find somewhere to rent they don't speak much English so they would need help to ensure the rent is paid each month as well as bills and council tax. I do agree though there's 3 adults who have been earning and have jobs to go to. So must have accumulated some money.

"These people" are refugees. Have you seen the state of their home? Wonder how many of their friends have been killed?

I've known many, many refugees. People that have had their sibling and parents burnt alive in front of them, suffered generations of brutal regime and torture.I have lived with them.
Not one was ever so disrespectful and entitled as a hell of a lot of Ukrainian refugees are. How many of the Ukrainian refugees are actually even from the parts being blown up?

Op should just stop being a doormat and drop them off at her local council. They can be treated just as other refugees are.

My partner works in this field in Scotland. What you are describing here is a 'local connection' which stopped being part of the legislation here about ten years ago. It's used to be part of a three point test but that's gone now. There might be a bit of a cross border anomaly thing, but from DH's experience they will be housed. People come here from prison in England etc and are accommodated.

DH is telling me that'll OP that you should contact shelter Scotland who will be able to give you proper advice, but what you are being told isn't really true. He works for a big local authority but some of the smaller ones might be fobbing you off a bit if they can.

I am going to add fuel to the fire here by saying this but they have been working full time on £10 an hour and sending it all home to Ukraine via Moneygram. There is probably about £15,000 in dollars under the mattress at home in Ukraine as the husband there doesn't have a bank account. So yeah they earned and saved money, but no they don't have it and they will claim they are poor even to me who knows exactly how much they have sent home.

Genuinely surprised that anyone is comparing hosting one person to OP’s situation with three adults AND a child and actually telling her she is unreasonable based on that.

I have good friends who have hosted a family, essentially the same size, and even in their relatively large house it is so much work. There’s no support for all of the various appointments (schools, doctors, dentists, council, government, travel) that my friend has to arrange for them, and that is just the surface. They’ve also essentially left her with the youngest child, virtually all of the time, even when they are home. It’s very hard work. He is very demanding in a way that no one in her family is used to.

By contrast, one of their relatives is living by herself with another family nearby and she feels as if she’s on holiday, loves the house and regularly does as much as she can to help clean, cook and generally not take her situation for granted.

Basically OP, I hope you’re able to find a solution.

Blimey!

They have jobs to go to. Therefore they can pay rent like the rest of us have to do. Tell them to stop being so self entitled and get a private rented place up there. They’ve clearly got used to having free accommodation and don’t want to give that up.

YES!! That is exactly what I thought and I really wanted someone to confirm it. Because the 5 people working for the council had said it would be fine to drop them off, before this one person said I couldn't. I thought perhaps she just couldn't be bothered dealing with it.

Lol. That doesn't surprise me at all. Nobody here will believe it though, so I hope you're a long standing poster or you'll be banned for being a troll. As I said, I've lived with people from former communist states. Different mindset entirely.

Did they give you any housekeeping?

hopefully they will be paying some tax or NI in future

I'm really not trying to start a cultural debate or saying that all Ukrainians are like this. My friends who have taken people in all seem to be having lovely experiences. I have enjoyed being helpful, and it has been rewarding in many ways, but I just want it to be over now.

My partner works in this field in Scotland. What you are describing here is a 'local connection' which stopped being part of the legislation here about ten years ago. It's used to be part of a three point test but that's gone now. There might be a bit of a cross border anomaly thing, but from DH's experience they will be housed. People come here from prison in England etc and are accommodated

I suspected as much, so it's good to have it confirmed.

I think there is still a degree of anomalous discrepancy from one Scots LA to the next, but I also have a feeling that might be rooted in the reciprocal agreements between the relevant LA's, whereas in this situation we're talking about individuals arriving in Scotland where I'd expect they'd face a unified set of rules no matter where specifically they pitch up. Some LA's do definitely still tell individuals to effectively 'bugger off' though as I've seen it happen to people I work with, but there are circumstances involved that are entirely different to what's going on here.

Its not an unusual mindset for people to send money home, especially if they've got family back home. Oh, and if the family are living in a war zone.

@1forthemoney2fortheroad you can get as frothy as you like, I don't see that anyone here has really insisted the OP must continue to host, just that she shouldn't dump them outside a council office and drive off.

I would say at this point just state you can only stay till x date and maybe make it 3-4 weeks time, copy them on a mail to your council saying the same and tell them you can use the time to find a place to rent in Scotland. We’ve already given our guests notice that we expect them to find somewhere by end of April at the 1 year mark and that we are happy to help them look for something.

Shelter area really helpful give them a call

No they haven't given any housekeeping or anything. I didn't ask for it though which was stupid in hindsight. They do occasionally give me little gifts like the stuff that was donated to them that they didn't want... And they pay me back for things they order through me online, rounding it up by 5p or something...

Well since they refuse to rent somewhere, what should she do in the circumstances? Drive them to and from work in Scotland daily?