New guidance to help improve housing services for refugees and migrants

Eleven pioneering housing organisations have helped to develop vital new guidance on housing services to refugees and new migrants through the two-year 'Opening Doors' project.

The guidance, which is launched nationally this week, was developed by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and hact (the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust).

Front-line housing advice officers have a duty to help refugees granted leave to stay and other new migrants, but the legal situation and the options for finding them a home are complex. A new bank of guidance and reference materials is now available to housing associations and local councils to help them improve their service in this field.

The guidance includes information on how people enter Britain, their legal status and entitlements, how to assess housing need and what other sources of assistance housing authorities can link into.

The resources now available to housing professionals in the UK include a toolkit, an on-line pack of training resources, a legally-vetted housing rights website, and evaluation report from the project and cases studies drawn from the good work of the pilot organisations.

The two-year project was supported by Communities and Local Government and the Housing Corporation, now the Homes and Communities Agency, and the Tenant Services Authority.

Sarfraz Hussain, Project Director at hact, said: "Opening Doors has been about housing providers going the extra mile. The partners have shown that responding to the housing needs of new communities is as much about vision, passion and energy as it is about resources".

Richard Capie, CIH Director of Policy and Practice, said: "Many housing organisations would like to develop their services to reflect the needs of refugees and other new migrants.  In this project eleven were able to do so, and we can now share this experience and the material generated.

"CIH hopes that social landlords generally will make use of these resources, so that in time we see a real transformation in housing and support services for communities that are often on the margins of social housing and yet have as much need as anyone else for a decent and secure home".

Julia Glover, Community Projects Manager at St Vincent’s Housing Association – one of the pilot organisations – said: "Taking part in the Opening Doors has been very positive, and provides a platform from which we can continue and improve.

"Our knowledge and skills working with refugees and new migrants has vastly improved; this in terms of housing, integration and partnership working. The Toolkit especially will provide a valuable resource to housing providers wishing to develop and expand their services to refugees and new migrants".