The Home Office is under increasing pressure to help house more than 1,400 refugees facing homelessness in Glasgow as it rushes to clear a significant backlog of asylum claims.
Lawyers acting for refugees in Glasgow have warned that the city council and the Scottish and UK governments face legal action and compensation claims if they fail to provide enough homes for people who have been granted the legal right to live in the UK.
The Scottish Refugee Council warned that without sufficient housing, there would be “escalating street homelessness” this winter, putting people at risk of exploitation and possibly loss of life.
“The perversity of it all is that for those granted refugee status, this should be a time of relief, hope and joy, not torment and homelessness,” said Graham O’Neill, the SRC’s policy officer.
Glasgow City Council expects more than 1,400 refugees to be suddenly made homeless in the city later this year as a result of a Home Office decision to speed up the asylum backlog, emptying more than 50 hotels of claimants.
Council officials estimate that the surge in cases could cost the city, which is home to the largest concentration of asylum seekers in the UK, around £26 million in extra emergency accommodation costs immediately and up to £54 million over the following year.
The council has already lost three court cases this month involving refugees initially refused temporary accommodation. In all three cases, they had lost their Home Office-funded accommodation after winning the right to stay, leaving them sleeping rough. A judge ordered the council to place them in temporary accommodation.
Once an asylum seeker is granted leave to remain, they have to leave their state-funded accommodation, often hotels or B&Bs, and find their own accommodation. Although refugees are immediately eligible for Universal Credit, it takes weeks for their claims to be processed.
Mike Dailly, the Govan Law Centre solicitor who brought these cases, said he was preparing further legal challenges, possibly under the Human Rights Act, if the council refused to rehouse other refugees who became homeless after being granted leave to remain.
Although the Scottish Parliament had strengthened the legal rights of homeless people, allowing more people to claim support than in the rest of the UK, he said funding cuts had forced councils like Glasgow to reduce spending on homelessness.
Glasgow has been lobbying the Home Office and Scottish ministers to share the expected costs. Susan Aitken, the council leader, and Allan Casey, the council’s homelessness convener, held talks with Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, and other council leaders on Thursday morning.
“Although no commitment was made to provide resources to mitigate the immediate impact of [these] changes, it was recognised that the city faces particular challenges,” said a council spokesperson. “The council will continue to make a strong case for financial support.”
Paul McLennan, Scotland’s housing minister, also urged the Home Office to share these housing costs, arguing that the UK government was solely to blame for the crisis. The Scottish government had already offered £60m to social landlords across Scotland to buy extra temporary accommodation and was trying to help councils find it, he said.
“It is completely unacceptable for the UK government to significantly increase the pressure on local authorities without providing any financial support for people to move on from asylum accommodation,” he said.
Wafa Shaheen, head of asylum at the Scottish Refugee Council, said the number of refugees seeking its help had doubled in the past month. “But the number of flats or houses available to people is not doubling,” she said.
“It’s unrealistic, unreasonable and almost designed to set people up for failure, especially in the midst of a chronic housing shortage and cost of living crisis.”
A Home Office spokesman said it encouraged applicants to plan their next steps as soon as they received a decision.
“While we offer a wide range of support once applications have been approved through [refugee charity] Migrant Help, access to the labour market and advice on applying for Universal Credit, homelessness in Scotland is ultimately a devolved matter for the Scottish Government.”
