Ministers need to act urgently to prevent a looming homelessness crisis among Ukrainian refugees, council leaders have warned. More than 100,000 people have become guests of British families under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, but many are coming to the end of their six-month stays and finding there is nowhere for them to go.
The government plan was for Ukrainians to either rent their own homes or “rematch” with other hosts. But local authorities responsible for overseeing the scheme say they are struggling to find people to take in the refugees. The District Councils Network, which represents 183 mostly rural local authorities, said that it had received many reports of hosts deciding not to rematch.
Nataliia Kozhushko, a 38-year-old engineer from the Kharkiv region, has been living with a family in Cropredy, Oxfordshire, since April. She needs to move for work but has been unable to find a new host for six weeks. “We’ve advertised on Facebook for her with a lovely picture of her but not had a single person come forward,” said her host, Amy.
By Christmas, about 14,000 Ukrainians are expected to have come to the end of their stay and if they cannot find another host or private accommodation they will be homeless. The latest figures show that 1,915 Ukrainians have presented to councils as homeless. At the moment, 4,000 Ukrainians are looking for sponsors, according to the Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway charity.
Barry Wood, Conservative leader of Cherwell District Council, said that rematching was proving difficult and was often not the right solution. “Where there is a breakdown of the arrangement heading our way, we’re looking for substitute hosts. That’s not ideal, especially when there are kids in primary schools because they shouldn’t be uprooted.”
Bridget Smith, Liberal Democrat leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council and vice-chair of the DCN, said the government needed to take action now to prevent a crisis. “Now that we have the cost of living crisis, I think that makes the potential for a crisis much more real. No matter how altruistic and kind and generous our hosts are – and many are not wealthy people – this will be putting serious pressures on them,” she said.
