Refugee Housing Crisis: 7-day evictions put people at risk of homelessness

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PJ: Hi, my name is Phil Jump and I'm the Chair of Churches Together on Merseyside and I'm the Baptist Regional Minister for Merseyside, North Wales and the North West. And I'm joined by my colleague Ellen Loudon, who I work with in a number of contexts. And Ellen, just introduce yourself to us and tell us about your work with the Diocese of Liverpool and beyond.

EL: Thanks, Phil. So I'm Ellen Loudon, I'm Director of Social Justice for the Diocese of Liverpool and Canon Chancellor at the Cathedral. And a lot of my work is to do with social justice and enabling activists and various other people to explore ways that they can make a bigger difference in the world.

PJ: And one of the things that we do together as Churches Together on Merseyside is try and find ways of helping churches to support refugees and asylum seekers and support those organisations that provide that. And recently some of the people that we helped were at a conference and they came back and some of the stuff that they shared with us we really found quite disturbing and it was kind of that that got us to want to make this little video together. Do you want to say a bit more about that?

EL: So yes some colleagues of ours from Faiths for Change and from Asylum Link, organised a meeting of people that are working with asylum seekers and refugees, displaced people in not just the city but the city region and some really, as you say, disturbing news around what has been a change in protocols. It's not so much a change in policy but in the way that the Home Office is working with refugees who are given leave to remain in this country, so refugees who are here and have status in this country.

As they've moved from having accommodation when they've been seeking a status in the country, they've been given accommodation. But what's happening to them is that instead of being asked, once they get leave to remain, asked to leave within 28 days, they've been told that they need to move within seven days. And that's an incredibly short amount of time for somebody who, for anybody who's not necessarily aware of all the ways that this country works in terms of finding secure housing. But also they won't have benefits, won't have kicked in and or they won't necessarily be able to find a job within a week. So it's a really hard situation for people who find themselves suddenly homeless after a week.

PJ: So let me just get this straight, we're talking here about people who have come to this country as refugees, they've been assessed, they've been investigated and they've been given refugee status. So these are people who've come to this country because they are facing danger, even potentially death in their in their country, and these are genuine asylum seekers, well genuine refugees. And they're being given a week to, basically just completely restart their lives.

EL: Exactly and also not only with their accommodation, but whilst they were seeking asylum, they would have also had recourse for some funds. So not a huge amount of money, but within a week, that funding is withdrawn and they are asked to leave their secure accommodation. So they are essentially like moved, displaced again having been given leave to remain in this country.

So suddenly not knowing where to live, who's going to support them and not having any money or any additional support. Now they can sign on, but as we know the benefits process can take anything up to three months so it's actually a really difficult situation and it's difficult if you don't have somewhere to live, don't have a bank account and don't have anywhere secure that you can actually go to be able to make the most of any benefits or any other systems?

PJ: And I mean some churches are responding to this need and there are some great things happening sadly in the face of this. But I mean I think why we wanted to make this video particularly was because we simply wanted people, particularly the Christian community but not just the Christian community, as British citizens to know that this is the way people are being treated in our name. This is how we, I guess the values that we consider to be our shared values, you know the question we want to ask is does this represent what we would understand, you know I think many people are concerned about the scale of migration, people are concerned about all sorts of things, but: Is this the kind of welcome that we as British citizens want to see extended in our name to people who are have been bound to be refugees. I guess churches…

EL: We know that we have we've extended a warm and generous welcome to Afghans who've needed to leave their country because we as British citizens have taken responsibility responsibility for them and the same with Ukrainian refugees. We've extended a welcome to them and what I don't, what I'm struggling with and I think many of us are struggling with is that these are people who have come from their countries, various countries and we're not extending the welcome that we are used to as a nation and as a Christian community and as you say British citizens, we're not used to this kind of level of lack of generosity and welcome.

If I was found to need to leave my country and I was given leave to remain, I would hope that a nation would treat me with a bit more kindness.

PJ: Yeah, and we are both Christian ministers and I guess the words of Jesus, you know, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, come to mind when you say that. And it's right, I mean, the contrast that comes to my mind is, you know, there's a disproportionate number of people in this plight in our city of Liverpool because this is where a lot of people find themselves when they're in the asylum system. And the contrast for me with Eurovision, when, you know, I know there was a lot of fun and frivolity, but it also stood as a symbol of our solidarity with the Ukrainian people, the displaced people. And this seems to be such a massive contrast to that.

EL: It does, and it's, I, because I think people aren't aware of it, I think that it will be a shock. It will be a shock that we're not, because we're used to that generosity, we're used to treating people in a way that treats their humanity and doesn't leave them without hope. And I think that's what's really struck me. And we're talking, so in terms of numbers, my understanding is Asylum Link, who, you know, we work really closely with Phil, don't we? Asylum Link, since August, have met over 100 people who are finding themselves homeless because of this situation.

As you say, because of the number of people that the Home Office house here, legitimately because this is a place where people come for their last resort, for their claim, that we potentially would be facing through this winter up to 5,000 people who will be processed. Now that's an awful lot of people and that's an awful lot of people that we in the voluntary community, faith and social enterprise sector, I don't think we have the capacity to deal with this on this scale at this notice and I'm not sure what we are going to be able to do.

PJ: And I think that's why we kind of wanted to make this video because we recognise our churches across Merseyside are incredibly diverse. There'll be different opinions about this. Some of us may want to write to MPs, some of us may be able to say, can we provide something as a church, but we simply want you as our sisters and brothers in Christ to know about this and to just think about how we as Christian people respond to what is happening in the nation that we call home. So Ellen, thank you for talking to me and we just both hope that just invite everyone.

EL: Just to know that it's happening and to understand what the consequences of these of the choices that are being made at this moment are. Thanks Phil. Yeah and thank you for listening of the choices that are being made at this moment are. Thanks Phil.

PJ: Thank you for listening to us.