Migrant homelessness has long been the ‘elephant in the room’ in discussions with government. The need to be seen to be tough on immigration has meant that policy solutions to support migrants out of homelessness have too often gone unheeded. Instead, the immigration and asylum systems are a direct cause of homelessness, pushing many into hardship and destitution and leaving services without the resources to provide meaningful support. In recent months these pressures have increased to the point that many homelessness services are struggling to manage the scale of demand.
Meanwhile, the far-right riots that erupted across the UK this month have exposed the very real risks of racist abuse and physical and mental harm that people from racialised communities can face, including migrants, refugees and people in the asylum system. They underline the urgent need for policy solutions that protect, not marginalise and scapegoat, people subject to immigration restrictions.
With a new Government comes new opportunities and the hope of working alongside Ministers to implement a more considered and effective approach to tackling migrant homelessness to create a society with a home for everyone.
Outlining solutions for change
Homeless Link and NACCOM have published a policy briefing exploring the key drivers of, and potential solutions to, homelessness amongst migrants. It is supported by over 70 organisations working in the fields of homelessness, housing, and migrants’ rights, from local grassroots charities to leading national organisations. And it’s not too late to add your support, please get in touch with kateya.mbita@homelesslink.org.uk if you want to add your organisations logo.
The briefing outlines that the scale of the challenge demands not only a cross-departmental, coordinated response at both a national and local level, but also urgent reform to ensure that immigration policy, rather than being a driver of homelessness, contributes towards the goal of preventing and ending homelessness for all.
Preventing homelessness should be a considered part of the immigration system, alongside greater collaboration with housing, welfare, and voluntary and statutory services, and improved recourse to justice through our legal systems.
Building a homelessness system that works for all will require:
- Recognising and addressing the impact that restrictions on public funds have on homelessness.
- Stopping the flow of homelessness from the asylum system.
- Expanding access to quality free immigration and welfare advice.
- Taking a cross-departmental approach to tackling all forms of rough sleeping and homelessness.
- Repealing the Illegal Migration Act 2023 at the earliest possible opportunity.
Prior to the election, Homeless Link, NACCOM, and 117 other organisations in the homelessness and migrants’ rights sectors wrote an open letter to party leaders urging action on migrant homelessness.
And earlier this month we followed this up by writing to the new Minister for Asylum and Border Security, Dame Angela Eagle, sharing the briefing and requesting a meeting to discuss the urgent issues facing the migrant and homelessness sectors and the solutions needed to tackle them.
But to ensure that the new Government understands how important and urgent addressing issues related to migrant homelessness are, we need your help – our collective voice is extremely important and creating real change requires the support of all MPs from across the house. We hope that that you find the briefing a useful resource to support any advocacy work you are doing in this space. Alongside the briefing, we have also developed this summary which you can use to help MPs, local authorities, and other organisations with an interest in migrant homelessness that you engage with to better understand the issue of migrant homelessness and the practical actions they can take towards our shared goal.
How you can get involved
We encourage you share the briefing and summary with your MP(s) and ask them to take action. To support you to do this, we have developed this resource pack.
We’re keen to hear about your engagement with MPs on migrant homelessness, so do share any information you can. We’re also here to support you, so do get in touch.
Nobody should be homeless because of their immigration status. Working together we can push for the changes we need to design homelessness and destitution out of the asylum and immigration system.
