Greater Manchester Law Centre have created a guide to support people who are facing homelessness or are navigating rehousing upon being granted refugee status. The Guide has also been translated into Arabic and Tigrinya, which are available to download at the end.
Your rights to Re-housing and Homelessness
This factsheet is to provide general advice to those granted refugee status on how you can ask the Council for help with homelessness or re-housing.
1. Making a Homeless Application:
When you are granted Refugee Status or any other form of Leave to Remain with Recourse to Public Funds, then you become eligible for homelessness assistance from the Council’s Homeless Department. If you have been living in Asylum Accommodation you will be given Notice to leave.
If you don’t have anywhere to stay, then you can ask the Council for help finding accommodation.
Don’t wait until the day you have been asked to leave your Asylum Accommodation. You can make your application as soon as you know that you have been granted status and are going to need help finding somewhere else to stay.
You can apply to any Council, but if you approach a Council where you do not have a local connection then they are probably going to refer you to the Council in an area where you do.
Each Council has different rules about how they would like you to make your application and it’s best to check the website to see whether you can go to their Homeless Department in person or whether they ask you to contact them by phone or e-mail.
If you need help making an application then someone can make the application on your behalf and ask that the Council make contact with you to arrange an interview for an assessment. The assessment can be in person or by phone. If you need an interpreter then the Council should arrange this for you. If you find it difficult to have conversations on the phone then the Council should agree to arrange a face-to-face appointment.
2. Your Homelessness Assessment:
When you have your assessment, the Council should ask questions to find out about 5 things:
1. Whether you are homeless or threatened with homelessness – the Council will ask about your current housing circumstances: Whether you have somewhere to stay, if so for how long and whether you have any friends or family who can help you with accommodation.
Evidence to help you – you should give to the Council a copy of any Notice you have received asking you to leave, or, if you have been staying with friends, a letter from them confirming that they cannot help you anymore.
2. Whether you are eligible for homeless assistance from the Council’s homelessness department – the Council will ask about your immigration status and will ask for copies of your documents.
3. Whether you are in priority need –
You will always be in priority need if you
- have children who live with you; or
- if you or your partner are pregnant; or
- you are aged 16 or 17; or
- you are under 21 and have been in care when you were 16 or 17; or
- have become homeless because of domestic violence or abuse;
You should also be in priority need if you will be more vulnerable if you are homeless than other people because of:
- health problems or disabilities, or any other circumstances such as
- your age,
- violence, abuse, trafficking or trauma you have suffered in the past; or
- your limited English and lack of family or other support.
The Council should consider all of these problems together when deciding whether they make you significantly more at risk of harm when homeless than somebody without these problems.
Evidence that might help you:
If you have a medical report or other evidence that you used for your immigration case that could help you show how serious your health problems are or the things that you have experienced.
You can also give the Council a letter from your GP or other medical professional who knows you or any other organisation that has been giving you support.
4. Why you have become homeless and whether you have lost your home because of something you deliberately did or didn’t do.
If the Council think it is your fault that you have become homeless then they may decide that you have become intentionally homeless.If you have lost your accommodation because you have been granted status or been asked to leave because the people you have been staying with can’t help you anymore then this shouldn’t be considered your fault.
5. Whether you have a local connection with the Council’s area:
You will generally have a local connection with a Council area if:
- It is the area of your last asylum accommodation provided to you under Section 95, or
- You have lived in an area, (not in asylum accommodation or detention) for 6 months out of the last 12 months or 3 years out of the last 5 years, or
- You are a care leaver who was in care in the area, or
- You have family associations in the area (parents, adult children, brothers and sisters or other relatives who are very close and important to you) and they have lived in the area for a long time, or
- There are other very strong reasons why you need to be in the area – for example because you rely on a person or organisation for care and support and can’t get the same support in any other area.
- You have stable employment in the area,
Evidence that might help you:
The more evidence you can show to the Council about why you have a connection to the area the better – this could be a letter confirming your most recent Section 95 address, letters from people you have been staying with, bank statement to show you have been in the area, your employment contract or letters from people or organisations that are offering you support.
If you are eligible for homeless assistance from the Council and are homeless or threatened with homelessness then the Council have the following duties:
The letters and documents you should receive after your assessment
After your homelessness assessment then the Council should send to you a letter stating what duty they have accepted to you and a copy of your housing needs assessment and personalised housing plan. The plan should set out what steps the Council will take and what steps you should take to either prevent you becoming homeless or to find suitable accommodation for you.
3. The Different Homeless Duties
1. The Council’s duty to prevent people becoming homeless – The Prevent Duty
If you have somewhere that is OK for you to stay in the short term, but won’t be able to stay for more than 8 weeks, then the Council may decide that they have a duty to help prevent you becoming homeless.
This duty lasts for 8 weeks (56 days) and during that time the Council should take steps to either help you stay in your current accommodation or help find you somewhere to stay before you become homeless.
2. The Council’s duty to provide relief to people who are already homeless – The Relief Duty
If you are already homeless or become homeless after you have made your homelessness application, then the Council will owe you the relief duty. This is a duty to help you to find suitable accommodation that is likely to last for at least 6 months.
The duty ends if:
- The Council decides you do not have a local connection with their area and another Council accepts that you have a local connection with them. In these cases, the new Council takes over all homeless duties to you.
- You are no longer homeless because you have found and accepted somewhere that is suitable and likely to last for at least 6 months or you have refused an offer of such accommodation; or
- You are still homeless after 56 days
3. Emergency Temporary Accommodation during the Relief duty:
If you don’t have anywhere safe to stay and can give the Council some reason to believe that you might be homeless, eligible for help and in priority need then the Council should provide you with temporary accommodation whilst they consider your case and help you under the Relief duty.
What happens if I am still homeless at the end of the Relief Duty:
If you are still homeless at the end of the Relief Duty then the Council will only have a duty to provide you with accommodation if you are in priority need.
4. The Final Homeless Duty
If Council should accept a main homeless duty if they decide that you are:
- Homeless;
- Eligible for assistance;
- In priority need; and
- Not intentionally homeless.
The Council will then have an ongoing duty to provide you with suitable accommodation until you receive an offer of suitable accommodation. This could be social housing or an offer of a private rented property with a tenancy of at least 12 months.
The duty will end if you refuse such an offer or do something that causes you to lose your homeless temporary accommodation.
The main duty can also be transferred to another Council if, after the Relief Duty ends, the Council decide you do not have a local connection with their area, and another Council accepts that you have a local connection with them.
5. The Temporary Accommodation Duty
If the Council decides you are homeless, eligible for assistance, in priority need but are intentionally homeless, then they only have a temporary duty to provide you with accommodation for a reasonable period whilst they help you try to find somewhere to stay. The amount of time should depend on your circumstances but can be as little as a few weeks.
4. Warning about refusing offers of accommodation
It is really important that you understand the risks of refusing an offer of accommodation made to you by the Council or for a property they have found for you.
Because so many people need accommodation and there is so little available, the accommodation offered to you does not have to be ideal, or even good for you, to be considered suitable.
If it meets your needs in terms of size and affordability and you could live reasonably in the property then it is likely to be considered suitable even if it is not in an area you know or have links to.
For this reason, the best advice is almost always to accept the offer and, if you do not like it, to then request a review. If you do this, and you cannot persuade the Council or a court that the property is not suitable for your needs, then you will at least have somewhere to stay whilst you look for better accommodation.
If you refuse the accommodation and the Council or the court decide the property was good enough and therefore suitable for you, the Homelessness Department’s duty to you comes to an end and they do not have to offer you any more help.
5. Challenging Decisions
Homelessness Reviews:
You have the right to request a Review of the Council’s decisions about what duty they owe to you or whether the accommodation they have offered is suitable. You have to request the review in writing within 21 days of the decision.
If you request a Review then you can also ask the Council to give you accommodation while they complete the review. Generally, the Council should do this if your case is strong, there is new information for them to consider and you have nowhere else safe to stay.
If your review is unsuccessful then you can appeal to the County Court and have to issue your appeal within 21 days of the Review decision.
Other accommodation decisions:
The main Council decisions that don’t have a right to review are:
- a decision to refuse to provide you with emergency temporary accommodation while they help you under the relief duty; and
- a decision to refuse to provide you with temporary accommodation while they consider your review.
These decisions need to be challenged by writing to the Council explaining why you think the decision is wrong and warning them that if they don’t change their minds, you will make an application for Judicial Review to the High Court. This is complicated and you will probably need a legal advisor to help you.
Getting legal help to challenge decisions:
If you are on Universal Credit or have a very low income then you should be eligible for Legal Aid (free legal advice) to challenge homeless decisions.
6. Applying for Re-housing through the Housing Register (Part 6 Housing Act 1996)
There is an alternative way to apply to the Council for help with re-housing, through the social housing register. However, as a result of the shortage of accommodation and the thousands of people in need of a suitable home, most people applying for housing in this way never receive an offer of accommodation. People needing larger homes or single floor/adapted properties face additional problems owing to the shortage of this type of accommodation.
Each Council has their own rules about how people can apply for rehousing through the rehousing register, who can apply and what priority they will be given. In Manchester, the register is managed by the service Manchester Move. Applications to join the housing register and receive an allocation under the scheme are made online at the Manchester Move website: www.manchestermove.co.uk
Eligibility to join the register:
Generally, the Council can decide that you are not eligible to join the rehousing register if you have done something they consider makes you to be unsuitable to be a tenant (eg serious antisocial behaviour or high rent arrears from a previous tenancy).
The Council also have to refuse some people because of their immigration status, such as people seeking asylum or people who have leave to be in the UK but with a provision that they do not have “recourse to public funds”. As a refugee, you are eligible to apply.
In addition, most Councils also have a residence or local connection criteria which say that only people who have lived in the area for a certain period or have family or work connections in the area are eligible to apply. For example, in Manchester, a person applying who has less than two years’ continuous residency in Manchester will not be eligible. However, there is an exemption to this where Manchester Council has already confirmed that the applicant is owed a homelessness duty (e.g. the relief duty as explained above).
Priority:
All Councils have a system in place to give some priority to people who are considered homeless, people living in overcrowded or unsanitary conditions, or people who need to move for medical or welfare reasons.
In Manchester, applicants are awarded a “priority band” according to their assessed need for housing. The bands range from 1 (the highest) to 5 (the lowest).
Within the different bands, people who have been on the waiting list longer will have priority over those in the same band who have been waiting for less time.
Available properties:
As part of the application process, there will also be an assessment of the type of property that you need; for example, how many bedrooms and whether you need a ground floor property or one that has been adapted.
Generally, you will only be able to place bids for properties that match your assessed needs.
Your right to challenge rehousing decisions:
If you disagree with any of the Council’s decision, then you have the right to request a review and to ask for new information and evidence to be considered.
Legal Aid (free legal advice):
Legal Aid is not generally available for help with rehousing reviews unless:
- the case involves you being discriminated against because of your disability, gender, race or other protected characteristics; or
- the case is challenging the lawfulness of the re-housing rules or practices or the failure to apply the rules to your case.
If the Council do not change their decision, then you may be able to challenge the decision by making an application to court for Judicial Review. This is only in cases where you can show that the decision is unlawful or so unreasonable that no reasonable decision maker could have reached the same result.
- Download Guide (English)
- Download Guide (Arabic)
- Download Guide (Tigrinya)
Thank you to Greater Manchester Law Centre for kindly producing a crucial resource that will help so many.