‘It’s too scary to be in a tent’: On the frontline of this winter’s refugee homelessness crisis
L.Less than a week after being homeless on the street, an Ethiopian refugee came to the Refugee Council at a time when his latent tuberculosis was at risk of becoming active.
He was forced to sleep in a tent in south London after being evacuated from an asylum hotel in the last week of September, just 28 days after receiving refugee status.
Like many refugees left homeless on the streets, he experienced a constant sense of danger and struggled to sleep. But even when he finally found a place to stay, he faced a difficult decision.
He would experience a burning sensation in his stomach as a side effect because he could not afford to buy food; He went to hospital twice a week, where staff gave him controlled doses of medication. The inconsistent nature of homelessness increased the risk of tuberculosis becoming contagious.
“He became uncontrolled because his homelessness didn’t allow him to regulate his medication,” says Hillary Kent, the Refugee Council’s poverty case coordinator.
“After being homeless for two months, the only housing available was in the west end of London,” he adds.
The refugee had found a sense of community in the local church near where he was sleeping rough in south London. “The choice was about whether you would give up your community to seek a safe and stable home.” says Miss Kent. “She cried on the phone and said, ‘I don’t know how to choose.’”
Frontline workers like Ms Kent warned Independent Refugees will face homelessness and poverty this winter as the Ministry of Internal Affairs suspends the 56-day pilot scheme. Charities such as Crisis said they were “forced into crisis response mode” as frontline staff printed crude sleeping guides in multiple languages and offered tents to refugees.
Seána Roberts, a social worker at the Merseyside Refugee Support Network, said refugees who arrived in the UK having been subjected to torture, rape and physical violence were on the verge of homelessness, and some of these people were so traumatized they were walking the streets at night, going in and out of cafes that might be open, because “it’s too scary to be in a tent”.
Of the 100 refugees who approach Ms Roberts’ team each week, seeking the housing and welfare support needed to establish a future in the UK after leaving Home Office shelter, she estimates that 30 to 40 per cent of these people are at high risk of homelessness.
The pilot was first announced in December last year, in which refugees would be given 56 days to leave asylum accommodation and find a new place to live, as opposed to the 28-day transition notice. Following a summer in which people protested outside asylum hotels across the country, the Home Office introduced a package of changes in September to speed up the asylum process, including pausing the pilot.
Although pregnant women, families and people with disabilities are granted exceptions to this change, concerns remain as the vast majority of refugees entering the UK are young and single people and the newly restricted policy is causing confusion among local authorities.
Ruth Lister told Independent After campaigning for a decade to extend the period to 56 days, he was “extremely disappointed” by the Home Office’s decision to reverse the transition policy, even tabled a private member’s bill to make the change permanent.
While Baroness Lister praised the government for speeding up decisions, she expressed concern that the decision to shorten the transition policy would leave more people in poverty.
“This will leave a larger group finding themselves kicked out after 28 days, which is not enough time to arrange your accommodation, universal credit, bank account etc, especially if you are relatively new to the country.
“As we head into the winter months, as local authorities have pointed out, I worry that this means more poverty, more homelessness, and in the long term it undermines the integration of refugees.”
Data published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs shows that the government has provided protection to 40,503 people so far this year. In the third quarter alone, 11,643 people were granted refugee status and 1,182 people were granted humanitarian protection. This indicates that thousands of people are at risk of becoming homeless.
Charities are already seeing the impact of their services; Refugees at Home Told Independent He said the number of street homeless refugees approaching them had more than doubled since the decision. New Horizon Youth Centre, which deals with youth homelessness in London, had 56 new young people coming to its day center after being evicted from accommodation at NASS, an increase of 19 per cent in September 2025 and a 70 per cent increase in August-September 2025.
Coco Claxton, refugee integration and housing officer at the Single Homeless Prevention Service (SHPS) in Brent, said her team had to apply for extended eviction notices from the Home Office and she had already had to support a client who had to sleep in the park for two days because they were unable to arrange an extension at the hotel.
“The supported accommodation provider will not accept that client without medical evidence of health needs where we cannot reach the evacuation date in time,” it says. “So he had to barely sleep for two days. He was staying in a park.”
Ms Claxton’s team has printed rough sleeping guides in several languages, detailing how refugees can keep themselves safe, where they can get hot meals and emergency medical care without a fixed address, and even how to connect with Street Link.
“This is a winterization measure that NAS leavers have been waiting for, as there are a lot of rough sleepers in the county. Obviously, it will look different in different local areas in terms of what they can expect.”
“For example, we have to share information on how to book hostels at discounted rates, where to go if you have insomnia, etc.”
His team had to pay £115 for a female refugee to travel to Birmingham; Here they provided him with emergency supported accommodation at short notice, as his evacuation from Home Office accommodation was a major challenge.
“As he doesn’t have universal credit we have to support him to get a £400 advance from universal credit so he can cover travel and food costs as his UC isn’t ready yet.
“When he moves there this week he doesn’t have any money in his bank account and we shouldn’t have to explore options in other cities.
“We’re really having to stretch ourselves to meet the need. There’s a lot of costs associated with it and those are really hard for charities to cover. We don’t have those additional funds available, so they’re being pushed hard.”
Already the Ministry of Internal Affairs has begun to encounter difficulties in returning to the past. Public law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn has taken on at least 16 cases involving refugees facing homelessness, and at least three high court judges have separately issued rulings overruling the Home Office policy since the end of October.
Megan Smith, a solicitor from DPG, said: “We have received several urgent orders from the court asking the Home Secretary to extend the transition period to prevent our clients from becoming homeless. “Our clients have done all they can to secure alternative accommodation and financial stability, but have been unable to do so within the short 28-day eviction notice period given by the Home Office.
“We represent only a fraction of the people affected by the sudden curtailment of the 56-day pilot. We continue to call on the Home Secretary to stop evicting people to homeless people on the street and ease the pressure on local authorities and charities who are already under-resourced.”
Independent It approached the Home Office and the Local Government Association for comment.
