Refugee Week

Refugee Week - ‘Community as a Superpower’

This week is refugee week across the UK, with the theme ‘Community as a Superpower’. At Spires, we deliver a weekly drop-in service in partnership with Croydon Refugee Day Centre to support newly recognised refugees to avoid or resolve their homelessness. This partnership was set up in November 2023 in response to the emerging refugee homelessness crisis and has successfully helped many refugees. At the time. according to CHAIN GLA Bulletin 2023/24, 17% of new rough sleepers had arrived on the streets following departure from asylum support accommodation.

Refugees are at risk of homelessness as they can no longer stay in the Home Office accommodation. Until recently they had up to 28 days to find accommodation, in December 2024, a six-month pilot program extended this to 56 days. The future of the pilot after this date remains uncertain. Refugees face other challenges such as lack of support network, language barrier, little to no savings, and lack of awareness of their housing rights and entitlements.

With 194 refugees receiving support from Spires, the project has achieved important outcomes;

  • 67 refugees have been supported out of homelessness & into housing

  • 47 refugees have received health support

  • 43 refugees have been supported to start or maintain benefits

Croydon Refugee Day Centre said “We were delighted to form a partnership with Spires to support newly recognised refugees who are street homeless or facing imminent street homelessness. This partnership has been of enormous value to our community members during the transition from asylum seeker status to refugee statues, providing them with specialist support at they go through the challenges of adapting to another new system and helping them avoid homelessness”.  

We’ve received positive feedback about how invaluable our support has been – “I have a lot of health issues and was worried how I’d manage once I had to leave the hotel. Spires helped me to request medical evidence to support my case. Once they received the information, Croydon Council accepted, I was priority need and found me housing. I am very grateful to everyone for their help.”

Matt