Living next to asylum seeker HMO, ask me anything

[JapanesePotWeed]

As the title says. I live in a Victorian mid-terrace, wall-to-wall, garden-to-garden with an asylum seeker dispersal HMO. They were moved in nearly two years ago, replacing a multi-generation family that were living there before.
There is another HMO directly opposite my house, where asylum seekers get rooms once they are approved to remain but don't have an income to support themselves.

Not AIBU but more like AMA. I'm wondering what people would ask me if they really could ask anything. Does anyone actually want to know what it is like? I hear a lot of political point scoring in the media regarding this topic but no one actually talks to people like me!

You'll be glad to hear that they are VERY proficient in languages! In fact English knowledge is the weak point.
I've spoken to some of the men from both houses and many of them speak languages from the countries they've been in before.
I've learned a lot about how they move around Europe. The favourite countries are Germany (many speak German and they even have German language set on their phones), Denmark and England. Denmark is falling out of favour due to political changes, so it's Germany and England left. They really dislike France and Paris (yeah, I get that one). 😅

And obviously, no one is allowed to know that they've claimed asylum elsewhere before.
I once randomly asked a guy if he speaks German. His face sort of dropped in concern and he asked me panicked : How do you know me?!!
I don't know them but I know they like their Germany 😅

I’m sure there was a storyline on one of the soaps years ago about someone going across houses via shared attic space.

I think it’s terrible that the contractor is being so secretive. It’s your home & you’re entitled to know who is living next door.

I’d hate the e-bikes & food bags blocking my alley way. I think the only way to stop this sort of thing is for people to collect their own take away. It’s bad enough in most town centres now - I’m constantly on edge looking over my shoulder for blokes on bikes with food bags in pedestrian areas. I don’t think it’s safe.

No, MEARS seek out private landlords and sign contracts with them directly. MEARS get financed by the Home Office.
The Council are often left completely outside the loop and wouldn't even know there was an asylum HMO there.
I complained to the Council about rubbish, rats and 6ft weeds in asylum garden and they helped to sort it by issuing an Environmental Health notice to MEARS. The Council were Not impressed at all about the state of things

They were telling their case workers that the bags and the bikes are mine! 😵‍💫
Yes to avoiding JustEat and Deliveroo! Those bags were stored on the ground, in an alley that I drag my bins through, where cats often do their business and the food smells attract rats. I was really quite disgusted by that alone!

Is there a lock or bolt or similar on your loft access so it couldn't be opened from the attic? That's the stuff of nightmares.

It's outrageous that we are in this position and I'll never forgive the politicians who approved this.

I'm not one for having food delivered anyway but the more people who use these things, the more it encourages more of these men to come.

I’m assuming they wouldn’t put families , women, and children in a house full of men, so that might be the reason for that. Not to say that the majority isn’t men, but one house doesn’t confirm that.

How long do you reckon they are there for at a time before they move somewhere else to another stage of the process or another flat?

Yep. They're going on courses and not working and claiming benefits. Ffs....

And not a woman or a child in sight!!

I've screwed the hatch shut for the time being but I'll have to go and build a stud wall up there.

HMO-style accommodation is nearly always single sex. This applies whether it's for asylum seekers, homeless people, rehab, abuse victims, etc.

There being no women or children in a men's HMO is hardly surprising.

@JapanesePotWeed I’m baffled as to why people order food on JustEat and Deliveroo. Honestly I’d prefer to cobble together a toastie or pasta & sauce. I wish people would stop ordering. I suppose it’s how some restaurants can keep going.

Terrace houses being turned into HMOs has destroyed my home town within a few short years. Every two / three terrace gets snapped up and turned into a minium 5 bed HMO. Changes everything about the town. The only good news OP that if you sold up, you have a developer bidding war

Yes, I worked with Syrian refugee families who studied hard to learn English, so that they could be part of the community. Their children learned quicker but were great at helping out.

Learning the local language is so helpful to community cohesion and relationship building @Thecows

Much better than the very English community my parents lived in in Spain where very few learned to speak Spanish, my DM (but not my DF) being an exception.

How did you find out that a lot of the people living next door to you speak fluent German?

Would have been the perfect house for women but...

Most stay close to a year. Some probably fall foul of some regulations and disappear sooner. Or do a runner.
I found a Home Office letter in my front garden recently. It contained a court decision to deport based on REPEAT history of offending. There were two cases associated with an individual : drug dealing/possession and fly-tipping. The letter went on about how criminal behaviour is not compatible with being "of good character". As such, a decision has been made to deport.
ALTERNATIVELY, the person could leave the country willingly and they will be given £2000 and a seat on a flight to do so...

Who knew!⬆️ We pay 2k to convicted criminals to leave willingly. What a strange country this is!

Has anyone ever brought you a plate of food?

I ask because the house next door to mine was housing asylum seekers for 10 years. The capacity of as 4 to 5 persons though so sometimes it was families sometimes groups of men sometimes groups of women.

Several introduced themselves to neighbours brining a plate of food. i have lived overseas so luckily knew the etiquette of sending something back!

I never had any issues. Most were lovely, a few kept to themselves. But no trouble at all.

Food is a great connection, isn’t it, a reminder that we, as human beings, have lots in common. Food is a great way of learning from and about each other, as well as seeing that we are the same.

The Syrian adults I worked with and the British Pakistani community too, always share their food with a sense of pride and giving.

No, private landlords rent to Mears.

I spoke to them and was asked about my heritage. My dad was from Sweden and that is when I get told about Denmark and Germany. One guy had been in Norway. They try to speak German to me as it's better than their English. I don't speak German though!
And I've seen German as the main language on a phone - I was typing in where nearest Tesco is!

I think there are different cohorts of asylum seekers and unfortunately my neighbouring lot are what we would call "boat people" and straight here from the processing centre in Kent.
They are always single, male and 90% of African origin. There have been a couple from Afghanistan and currently an Albanian. The Albanian man is upto no good.

The asylum seekers next to me are supposed to be destitute and living off the £49 a week government payment. So I'm not surprised they don't feed me. Though I was offered to come in for tea&hashish!!

When you say they are "always single" have they told you that? I am just wondering whether some of them may be married, but their wives are in other countries.

Ah yes. This is a massive problem around me. Exploitation of working class communities for huge profits. We are losing everything we were already short on: community connections, social capital, safety and all investment that creates jobs and educational opportunities.
Any investment that does arrive, gets diverted towards servicing the needs of the new tenants. No more investment in the capable. Here we only finance and make rich those who service the needy.

I have an arguably much more problematic HMO to the other side of me - it houses drug addicts and prisoners on release. Ain't I lucky!
But I wanted to dispel some myths around HMO dispersal accommodation. Some priviledged people don't even believe these HMOs exist!
They do but also there are much worse neighbours available.

If they all like Germany why not go there? Or you mean they did but their claim was rejected?

With "single" I mostly mean they don't have anyone with them when they arrive next door.
They do talk to families back home and it is mostly women that are on the phone (mums, wives?)
The guys in the HMO opposite have been in the country for a while and I never see any female visitors/ girlfriends. They sometimes have complained to me that it is very hard to live life in UK alone and that they'd like a wife. Do we even have enough culturally compatible women in this country to give these men any chance for a family life?! I suppose that is why they sneak back and bring a wife from their country...