Homelessness prevention by Glasgow City Council, MEARS Group and UK Home Office

Partnership approach to designing out homelessness for refugees

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The context

The PRG explored ways in which homelessness could be better prevented for people leaving state institutions. The Group concluded that intervention starting at the point a household first enters, rather than just before they leave, an institution, may be most effective in practice. The proposed extension of the legal definition of ‘threatened with homelessness’ from two to six months supports planned work with institutions at a much earlier stage for these groups.

At an individual level, these proposals don’t seem to benefit people leaving the asylum process with positive decisions (i.e. refugee status) who have no onward housing. Refugees receive 28 days’ notice to leave asylum accommodation: just half the current ‘threatened with homelessness’ time period. This makes early action to prevent homelessness appear impossible. Yet in Glasgow, where between 10-17% homelessness applications come from refugees each year, joint work between Glasgow City Council, MEARS, the Home Office and RSLs during the COVID-19 pandemic, shows progress – and prevention - is possible.

The intervention

As the Scottish Refugee Council’s (SRC) 2021 guide for housing practitioners highlights, refugees coming through the UK’s asylum process have always already faced challenges and often, trauma, before they encounter the homelessness system. Alongside the experience(s) which caused them to flee their home country, people seeking asylum are subjected to a ‘no choice’ system as regards location in the UK, and, often, multiple moves between properties whose minimum standards are set lower than those for temporary accommodation. If they receive a positive decision, refugees then have 28 days to move again – usually into the homelessness system - which often causes trauma of its own.

Unlike other cities (especially Edinburgh), Glasgow saw no drop in homelessness applications during the pandemic. Yet focused efforts between the Council and RSLs to improve Section 5 processes led, for the first time in five years, to more people leaving the system with a settled home than entered the system as homeless. The impact of these changes across the wider system enabled the Council (via its dedicated team) and asylum accommodation provider, MEARS, to devise a more planned approach to housing new refugees. They prioritised early identification of onward housing needs for those intending to stay in Glasgow, with Council and MEARS staff ensuring people received clear, consistent messaging.

The Council explores all settled housing options to avoid temporary (particularly emergency) accommodation. This includes coordinating Section 5 offers as early as possible, negotiating a pilot to ‘flip’ asylum accommodation to a settled tenancy (if owned by an RSL, and desirable for the household) and exploring options within neighbouring authorities, especially those with larger sized social stock. With agreement from the Home Office, the focus of all partners shifted from evicting people out the immigration system into the homelessness system, to planned moves into suitable temporary, or where possible, settled, housing. Though people still ‘overstay’ in asylum accommodation, they more frequently have positive moves and move-on identified, reducing protracted and/or acrimonious eviction processes.

The outcome

In 2021, refugee households made up 12% of Glasgow’s homelessness applications, compared to 18% the year earlier. 112 households moved directly from asylum accommodation to settled homes, without having to use temporary accommodation. Use of hotel/B&Bs, and the multiple moves they imply for this group, greatly reduced. The SRC assesses this planned response to refugee homelessness is offering a much more positive experience for people navigating these challenging transitions.

Key insights

• whilst current Home Office processes don’t allow intervention earlier than 28 days before homelessness for refugees at the individual level, local practice changes can make this possible at a system level
• given the ‘no choice’ asylum system refugees have always already gone through, choice in settled housing is especially important; speed of rehousing should not undermine that choice
• rapid rehousing practice changes leading to better ‘flow’ through the system ultimately benefits refugees.

Find out more…

Pauline McGarry, PRS Housing & Welfare Hub Manager, Glasgow City Council
pauline.mcgarry@glasgow.gov.uk