SOME 119 organisations called on the next government today to address migrant homelessness and reform the immigration system to prevent it from driving people onto the streets.
Homelessness charities including Crisis, Shelter and St Mungo’s and refugee organisations including Refugee Council and Praxis have written a letter to the leaders of the main political parties.
The signatories demanded the next government take action on migrant homelessness, highlighting how many are made “much more vulnerable to experiencing homelessness, or face additional barriers to moving on from homelessness” due to the current immigration system.
Last July, the Home Office introduced changes which meant that many newly recognised refugees were evicted from their asylum accommodation with just a week’s notice. It was later reversed to a 28-day notice period.
The changes sparked a 965 per cent increase over six months in people sleeping rough after their Home Office support was stopped.
In the letter, the organisations criticised such “punitive discriminatory policies and inflammatory rhetoric that scapegoat and marginalise migrants.”
They added, however, that the next government can deliver both the immediate and long-term changes such as improving access to quality legal advice and embedding a cross-departmental approach to tackling the issue.
Bridget Young, director of charity network NACCOM, said: “As a network of front-line charities, we see how people in the asylum and immigration system are systematically forced into homelessness and destitution all because they are blocked from accessing vital support services that are available to everyone else, including, for many, emergency homelessness accommodation.
“Any incoming government that is serious about ending homelessness for everyone must ensure that immigration policy doesn’t drive up levels of homelessness, as it is currently doing.”
Homeless Link chief Rick Henderson said: “The main political parties have all made commitments to vastly reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. But the elephant in the room is the way our immigration and asylum systems push people into homelessness and destitution.
“I hope this letter, and the weight of support behind it, will demonstrate the need for whomever forms the next government to make long-term changes that ensure the asylum and immigration system no longer drives people into homelessness but instead support migrants to build full and happy lives.”
