Domestic abuse and housing support
People in England considering fleeing their home because of domestic abuse can apply to a local authority for housing support.

On 17 July 2018, there will be a Westminster Hall debate on Homelessness among refugees, sponsored by Kate Green MP. It is a two hour debate starting at 2:30pm. This landing page provides background information on housing support for people once they obtain refugee status, including some of the barriers they may face.
Securing housing for asylum seekers in the UK is the responsibility of the Home Office. Once granted leave to remain, refugees are expected to find their own accommodation within 28 days. As a rule, refugees fall into a class of persons subject to immigration control who are eligibile for housing assistance:
…a person whose refugee status has been recognised by the Secretary of State and who has leave to enter and remain in the UK. Persons granted refugee status are usually granted 5 years’ limited leave to remain in the UK. (Prior to 30 August 2005, it was the policy to provide immediate settlement (indefinite leave to remain) for persons granted refugee status).
Individuals leaving Home Office accommodation may not have sufficient funds to secure private rented housing without additional help. Because asylum seekers are not permitted to work, saving for a deposit may act as a barrier. Processing benefit applications can take longer than 28 days. Furthermore, it can take time to receive a National Insurance number – this can delay entry to the workforce. These factors can put refugees at risk of homelessness.
The Department for Work and Pensions has published a guide for refugees: Help available from the Department for Work and Pensions for people who have been granted leave to remain in the UK.
The Government has attempted to speed up the process of moving refugees to mainstream support systems, including:
The UK Government does not have a refugee integration strategy. As refugee integration is a devolved matter, the Welsh Government has published a delivery plan, and Scottish Government has published a strategy for 2018-22.
In London, the Combined Homelessness Information (CHAIN) records information on rough sleepers encountered by outreach workers across different agencies. Annual reports are published on the Greater London Authority website.
The 2017/18 annual report records 66 people sleeping rough across the year who said their last settled accommodation was asylum support accommodation, compared to 74 in 2016/17. Prior to this the number had been rising year-on-year: there were 10 people in this situation in 2014/15 and 34 in 2015/16.
The homelessness charity Crisis published Everybody in: how to end homelessness in Great Britain (2018), which includes analysis of the scale of homelessness amongst refugees (pp340-342). They report that 478 of their new clients in 2016/17 approached them because they had nowhere to live after leaving asylum accommodation. This is an increase from 316 the year before.
Across the UK, providing assistance to homeless people is a local authority responsibility, aside from in Northern Ireland where the Northern Ireland Housing Executive exercises this duty. For further information, there are Library papers on Statutory homelessness in England and a Comparison of homelessness duties in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Shelter England and Shelter Scotland have published guidance for refugees.
The Refugee Council has published Making homelessness applications for refugees in England (February 2018).
Aside from Scotland, where the priority need categories have been abolished, the duty to secure accommodation for homeless people depends on whether they are considered to be in priority need (e.g. have dependant children) and whether they are unintentionally homeless. Refugees may fall into a priority need category but this will depend on their individual circumstances – there is no requirement to treat all homeless refugees as in a priority need category.
The Governments in Wales and England have extended the duties on local authorities to prevent and relieve homelessness for all eligible applicants (i.e. irrespective of priority need status). For example, in England, since
3 April 2018 authorities must:
Refugees with leave to remain can benefit from the prevention and relief duties. However, for the reasons set out above, the 28-day ‘move on’ period can prove challenging when organising assistance to secure housing. The No Accommodation Network (NACCOM) argues that the 28-day notice might “limit […] the quality of support that can be offered because of the short timeframe”, particularly as asylum seekers often do not know when their application will be approved.
There were attempts to extend the move-on period during the passage of the Immigration Bill 2015-16 through Parliament. The Government resisted the amendments. Refugees Welcome: the Experience of New Refugees in the UK, (pp23-4) provides more information.
In addition to extended prevention and relief duties, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (England) places a new duty on certain specified public bodies to notify local housing authorities if they believe someone is at risk of homelessness (the person’s consent is required). This duty will come into force in October 2018. The public bodies subject to this duty in England are listed in regulation 10 to the Homelessness (Review Procedure etc.) Regulations 2018 and includes; for example, prisons and jobcentres but not providers of accommodation for asylum seekers. This is regarded as an oversight by Crisis, the Refugee Council, NACCOM and Asylum Matters.
Several recent reports analyse the support offered to those who have been granted refugee status.
Mind the Gap: Homelessness Amongst Newly Recognised Refugees, NACCOM, May 2018
OUT IN THE COLD: Homelessness among destitute refugees in London, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), January 2018
The JRS works with “refugees who have been detained or made destitute by the asylum process.” This report is based on a survey of those who attended the JRS UK Day Centre in East London on two consecutive Thursdays. The JRS received 135 responses. As well as noting that nearly all those surveyed were homeless according to the law in England and Wales, the authors found:
The authors suggest that the Government’s ‘hostile environment’ policy is causing ‘destitution’ in the UK amongst refugees. Destitute’ refugees caught in cycle of homelessness, say Jesuit Refugee Service provides a synopsis of the report [Church Times, 26 January 2018]. The JRS also published a summary of its findings.
Refugees Welcome: the Experience of New Refugees in the UK, All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees, 2017
The authors write:
The evidence we received shows that a two-tier system has developed for refugees. Refugees in the UK will either have gone through the asylum process having arrived in the UK and then submitted an application, or they will have been brought to the UK directly from another country through one of the Government-led resettlement schemes.
Those refugees who arrive through a resettlement route are provided with accommodation and receive support to access services and find employment. For refugees who have gone through the asylum system, there is no such support. This was not always the case. Between 2008 and 2011, the Government funded a programme to help newly recognised refugees navigate the move on period, offering 12 months of support to access housing, education, social security and the job market. However, funding for the programme – known as the Refugee Integration and Employment Service – was ended in September 2011. Since then, there has been no Government provided support service for refugees who have been through the asylum system.
The recommendations include calls for a new ‘National Refugee Integration Strategy’ across the UK which would be overseen by a Minister for Refugees. The specific recommendations include:
Recommendations are also made about Jobcentre workers and advice, training and benefits.
Refugees without refuge, Refugee Council, September 2017
A survey was conducted of 54 people who had used the Refugee Council’s services in approximately a year-long period. Its key findings were:
PQs have probed Government action in the light of research finding set out above and support to prevent refugees from becoming homeless:
Written PQ HL8774 [Refugees: Homelessness] 03 Jul 2018
Written PQ 153848 [Homelessness: Refugees] 20 Jun 2018
People in England considering fleeing their home because of domestic abuse can apply to a local authority for housing support.
MPs will debate the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill at second reading on Monday 10 February 2025.
Find out who to complain to about problems in rented housing and the redress schemes available.