The Home Office has said it will double the number of days someone can stay in official sheltered accommodation.
Government letters seen by the BBC show that the grace period for refugees to move from supported accommodation to their own accommodation will be extended from 28 to 56 days from December 9.
The Home Office has described the change as “an interim measure” expected to last until June 2025, when it will be reviewed again.
Officials said in the letter that the move was designed to help local authorities after research suggested a significant increase in refugee homelessness over the past year.
In October 2022, Home Office officials said the daily bill for asylum seekers in hotels was £5.6m a day.
A fast-track element has been added to the UK’s asylum system to speed up the processing of people whose claims are likely to be accepted because they came from these countries.
In February 2023, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen were added to the fast track list. Some claims related to people from Iran and Iraq were also processed quickly.
The Home Office’s annual accounts, published last September, promised to “take action to address the unacceptable costs of migrants staying in hotels” and revealed Costs had risen to £8m a day..
Ministers announced that claims would be processed more quickly to allow hotels to close.
They also changed the move-on system, changing the stage at which the 28-day transition period began and effectively reducing that period to seven days.
The change was reversed a few weeks later, but many charities claim it was the trigger for a refugee homelessness problem that has not gone away.
Meanwhile, the number of hotels housing refugees has decreased significantly.
But last month, Home Office Minister Admittedly, the number of hotels has started to increase.
This month the Home Office refused a Freedom of Information request from the BBC asking whether the overall hotel bill had also been reduced.
Labor campaigned on a promise to reduce the asylum backlog, which Hit record numbers under the conservative government.
But the Home Office’s swift action has partly led to a growing number of homeless refugees, who have been evicted from government accommodation hotels.
This has put further pressure on councils and charities already dealing with rough sleeping.
Official government figures released last week showed a record 123,100 households were in temporary accommodation at the end of June, up 16 per cent from a year earlier.
Research published last month by the No Accommodation Network, an umbrella group for organizations in the asylum sector, suggested a large increase in refugee homelessness over the past year.
He said 1,941 adults who found themselves homeless in 2023/24 were granted leave to stay – up from 977 in 2022/23.
The organization called on the government to do more to tackle the “refugee homelessness emergency”.
The Government’s Homelessness Reduction Act, which was introduced in 2018, recognized that it usually takes at least 56 days to find accommodation.
Currently, a refugee is granted leave to remain for up to 28 days to find a place to live before being evicted from Home Office accommodation.
If a newly recognized refugee cannot currently find a place to live, they often declare themselves homeless to the local authority.
The lack of available accommodation options means that many councils and charities have had to resort to more expensive options such as hotels and bed and breakfasts for those in need.
The boss of a homeless charity in Manchester told Radio 4’s Today program this week that he had seen a huge increase in the number of asylum seekers or refugees – from 30% to 60% of the charity’s caseload in the last 12 months. More than %. He did not say how many people that equates to.
Joe Walby, chief executive of Mustard Tree, said refugees in big cities such as Manchester often struggle to “access the private rental market”.
He added: “The reality is, you can’t learn English, you can’t work, and then you have four weeks to find a job and find a house and you don’t have access to government support or council. Support, because you don’t need priority.”
Matt Downey, head of homelessness charity Crisis, said: “This extension will ensure that people trying to rebuild their lives after fleeing war and persecution face the further trauma of life on the streets. Will not have to.
“This is a very positive step… it is important that this becomes a permanent change next year if we are going to ensure that resettled refugees do not face future homelessness. “
Phil Carey, chief executive of New Horizons Youth Centre, a London-based charity which supports young homeless people, said: “The timing of this news could not be better and it means that our No more refugees will be pushed onto the streets this Christmas.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We have inherited huge pressures on the asylum system and we are committed to ending the use of hotels entirely as we step up the return of failed asylum seekers.”