Everyone who is resident in our communities, whatever their background or immigration status, should have the right to a safe, stable place they can call home. However, across Greater Manchester, as in the rest of the UK, there is a worsening homelessness crisis. Among those facing homelessness in our communities are people recently granted refugee status.
In this briefing, we look at the root causes of this crisis – the collision of recent shifts in national asylum policy with the decades-long decimation of social housing and deregulation of the Private Rented Sector. As a crisis that is bigger than any of us here in Greater Manchester, we show how trust has been corroded between local authority housing teams, voluntary sector organisations, and refugees facing homelessness.
While there are no easy answers, our recommendations lay out the measures, both locally and nationally, that can be done to rebuild trust and support local political commitments to welcome, sanctuary and safe, secure homes for all GM residents.