Any local authority housing experts out there?

[Jynxed]

Apologies for deliberately keeping things vague, but you will understand why.

I have been hosting a refugee with their right to remain established. As a young single person they do not have any priority for housing. They have now been offered a room in a hotel / homeless hostel sort of place.
Trouble is that they don’t want to accept the room because a) it’s just a room with no other facilities beyond a fridge and a kettle, and b) many of the other residents and undesirable, ie drug and alcohol abusers.

I completely understand - I wouldn’t want to live in a homeless hotel with scary people making a noise all night. But, and this is what I would like advice on, I think that if they turn it down the Council will have no further obligation to offer them anything else. Is that right?

And if they do take it, and acknowledging it’s not the best place for a young and vulnerable refugee, will they then be offered something else with greater urgency than if they continued living with me? Given our city is like most and has a severe housing shortage, how long might that take?
Im trying to encourage them to take what I think will be a difficult but hopefully short term step, but if it’s too long I know it will destroy them.
Please tell me about the reality out there!

Generally in England and Wales any communication from the Council should spell out the consequences of refusal if refusal has an impact on any duty owed. Some refusals end the duty, others won't.

The offer doesn't sound like an offer of permanent accommodation but very temporary accommodation however potentially refusal could lead to a duty ending if they have been notified of the consequences of refusal.

It is also possible to challenge the suitability of accommodation that is offered, but ideally it needs to be accepted then challenged otherwise the duty to house will end. Again, letters should spell out the rights of the applicant to challenge suitability.

The duty can only be discharged if the correct information is provided to the applicant on the offer letter.

Thank you so much. I haven’t seen the letter, so will ask about it. It is definitely a temporary solution but I don’t know what temporary means in this context. A week ? (Pointless, may as well stay with us), a month, a year? I can’t imagine a single person we get much priority on over stretched housing lists.

Are they currently bidding on properties? Whilst they are with you they don't have an urgent need as are housed. If moving to emergency or temporary council accommodation they are then in the system. It may be the only way for them to get in. It may not be nice for a bit but they need to take it really.

If they are a single adult they'll have no grounds on which to challenge the accommodation as unsuitable. A room without cooking facilities and shared bathroom is acceptable and normal. Entire families get housed like this.

The offer of temporary accommodation is a one-off thing. If they want to challenge it as unsuitable, they need to first accept the accommodation and move in.

If they don't accept it, the council will discharge their duty to house them under homeless rules. This means their only option will be private rental, because the council will have deemed them to have made themselves voluntarily homeless. They won't be eligible for housing even if living on the streets.

They will still be eligible for housing under ordinary rules but won't have any priority. As a single adult without children this means their chance of getting social housing is basically zero.

Turning down this temporary accommodation is a very very stupid idea.

Unless you're willing to house them until they find a private rental. Which could be never, if they've no deposit, no secure employment or no chance of passing affordability checks.

Home swaps are for people with an established tenancy in not-temporary-accommodation social housing, you can apply to join the register for it after one year of living there usually. Then you find someone who wants to swap with you, apply to the relavent housing associations to approve both parties for the swap and if it's acceptable to all concerned then you can swap.

Depending on where abouts in the UK you live and depending on other factors which may give additional priority points eg disability, temporary can sometimes mean decades. A few years is totally normal. Weeks is naively optimistic. Temporary accommodation costs the council a bomb (assuming it's being paid for by housing benefit) so they don't want people in it longer than necessary, but the fact is there's not enough social housing for those who need it. So people have to wait for a permanent place.

The temporary accommodation is never pointless, even if they were only there one day. Whilst in temporary accommodation you're still classed as homeless, so have priority status. Housed willingly with you, they're not homeless. They're only homeless because their tenancy with you has ended (regardless of if they're still there). To have a chance of getting housed they need to maintain their priority status, which means moving into temporary accommodation because they can't stay with you. If you change your mind and they can stay with you, they're not homeless (and will realistically have to look for private rental).

Also sometimes you can get moved from one temporary place to another. It depends on what's available. As a non addict, they may be lucky enough to be moved to a room in a better place that isn't filled with addicts, when one comes up. If their MH gets destroyed by the living circumstances, inform the council because it'll give extra priority points, both for a permanent place and for eligibility for a temporary accommodation self-contained flat. I know that sucks but it's the world we live in. You have to be almost dead to be eligible for help. I don't know if being a refugee gives them priority points.

There's no guarantee that the permanent place, when they get one, won't be filled with addicts and undesirables too. They have to live somewhere and it's often in social housing.

Social housing can be wonderful, offering a secure tenancy at low rents, in a well maintained building with reasonable neighbors. It can also be a hellhole with noise, intimidation, antisocial behaviour and a mouldy property with a damp problem that can only be realistically fixed by knocking down and rebuilding.

It's luck of the draw to a certain extent. They do unofficially assess people and try to put nicer people in nicer blocks/areas/estates. Their assessment isn't always accurate though, people can move their partners in etc and people can change throughout life. Plus, the issue of availability.

If you can't afford to buy or if you want a secure tenancy or can't easily afford private rental, it's the only option though.

If they don't like where they end up they could either try the home swap service for social housing or try to better their situation through a higher paying job, opening up buying or private rentals as options for them. If they're young they have time for career progression, if they're capable.

My ex sister in law was in temporary accommodation with her three little ones for 2 years. There's just not enough housing. It's naive to think it will only be a week or so.

Perhaps their best bet would asking around at college/uni/work for anyone with a room available in a house share?

I agree with other posters, temporary accommodation doesn't necessarily mean short-term.

I know here in Scotland there is a dire shortage of accommodation suitable for single tenants (of whatever age). Families, rightly imo, are entitled to first dibs on any larger properties that are available.

Thank you everyone, this has been really helpful in explaining the situation. Unfortunately I think it will be quite some time until their English will be of a suitable level to get a job, so it does look like they will be stuck in the system for sometime, as we cannot continue to house them long term (& it sounds like this will remove their chance of getting their own place anyhow).

Yes OP they are out of options. Their choices are take the temporary accommodation, keep bidding and wait for a permanent place. Or go live on the streets.

They have discovered you can't come to Britain and have instant luxuries and the streets aren't paved with gold. Perhaps a shock to the system if that's what they believed prior to arrival.

They're being treated the exact same way as a homeless British person.

For every person with priority status, through homeless or something else, that's another person struggling, in sometimes desperate circumstances, who can't access social housing because they have no priority points.

Your tenant has been offered a lifeline to a better future and should take it. At least they'll have a roof over their head and is presumably a better situation than wherever they fled from. They will have a housing officer, maybe some kind of key-worker too, to support and help them in improving their life, maintaining their tenancy and with providing information. In that way it's better than being with you, who knows very little and largely being left to fend for themselves with regards to sorting out their life. Although being with you is more comfortable day to day it hampers their independence long term.

In some areas rough sleepers on the streets have to wait for temporary accommodation to become available, even if they desperately want it and are willing to put up with awful places and comply with all the rules. Some choose to remain on the streets because they can't tolerate the homeless system or their addictions mean they can't comply with the rules. It's not easy and I hope your tenant is moved to a better place soon.