The number of refugees homeless in Leeds after being evicted from Home Office accommodation has skyrocketed in the wake of the government’s new asylum policies.
A total of 70 households became homeless from August to October, The Big Issue has found, up from eight in the same period in 2022 – an eightfold increase.
Cities across the country are struggling to cope as attempts to clear the legacy asylum backlog, coupled with a temporary accommodation shortage and an effective reduction in the time afforded to newly-recognised refugees to find a place to live, create a widespread refugee homelessness crisis.
Nationally, the number evicted into homelessness has tripled since changes made in August. In the months to August, Leeds had seen 7.7 households becoming homeless every month after leaving Home Office housing. Since August, it has been an average of 23.3.
“It is a terrible mess that is wholly avoidable and wholly the fault of this terrible government who have dumped people in Leeds in the full knowledge that this would happen,”Jon Beech, director of Leeds Asylum Seekers’ Support Network, told The Big Issue.
Beech said the charity was finding that refugees often did not have access to clothes to stay warm: “It’s a humanitarian emergency in Leeds.”