NASS cuts ‘may leave thousands homeless’

Rrefugee support groups have warned that thousands of failed asylum seekers could become homeless after the National Asylum Support Service revealed plans to slash the number of beds it provides by 30,000.

NASS this week admitted in a statement to Housing Today that it plans to cut the number of beds it rents from housing providers to 40,000. This would be a 42% cut on the 70,000 beds made available under contracts signed in 2000.

NASS has already started to renew the contracts. But 14 will expire by November and the remaining eight will come to an end in 2006. Its current contract with Safe Haven, a partnership of Yorkshire housing associations providing about 3000 beds for asylum seekers, is due to expire at the beginning of April.

A Home Office spokesman said: “NASS envisages an ongoing need to support more than 40,000 dispersed asylum seekers and the new contracts will reflect this.

“Clearly NASS needs to ensure new contracts give value for money. This will include consideration of factors such as reduction in the number of asylum applications.”

There are currently 40,760 asylum seekers in NASS accommodation.

Asylum groups fear the substantial cut in the number of beds available will put constraints on NASS when it comes to housing failed asylum seekers granted “hard case” support under section four of the 1999 Asylum Act.

Under these rules, failed asylum seekers – mostly from Iraq and Zimbabwe – are entitled to remain in the UK until the government says it is safe to return. They are entitled to hostel accommodation but may be sent anywhere in the UK with no access to support.

They must also sign a voluntary deportation document agreeing to leave if any organisation finds a way for them to do so.

The Northern Refugee Centre estimates that about 8000 Iraqi Kurds across the country were granted “hard case” support as a result of a High Court ruling in September last year. The court ruled that, in this instance, the failed asylum seekers would not have to sign the voluntary deportation document.

Jim Steinke, chief executive of the Northern Refugee Centre, said: “The government had to make section 4 [support] available to around 900 Iraqi Kurds in West and South Yorkshire. NASS had reduced contracts already and there were insufficient properties available to respond to this. Although some of the backlog has now been cleared, NASS needs to ensure there is sufficient provision for emergency accommodation.”

Steinke added that a “significant number” of asylum seekers from Iran and Somalia could also be granted section 4 support in future.

Bill Payne, chief executive of Yorkshire Housing, part of Safe Haven, said: “We need to ensure that NASS can provide flexible long-term support. I would be concerned if NASS cuts figures back to the bone.”

Despite concerns for failed asylum seekers, asylum organisations said NASS’s performance had improved. Steinke said: “On the whole NASS’s services have improved in terms of void management. Before some homes were not good quality; this should be an opportunity to get good quality homes.”

NASS is cutting back in response to dramatic falls in the number of people seeking asylum since its contracts were signed in 2000. Applications for asylum peaked in 2002 at 86,150, but this figure fell to 33,930 in 2004.

Housing minister Lord Rooker admitted last December that NASS was paying rent on 7500 empty properties. But the government denied that the number was as high as the 25,000 reported in The Sunday Times on 27 June (HT 17 December 2004, page 7).

Payne said he was “not surprised” NASS was cutting the number of bed spaces it rented.

A Home Office spokeswoman said NASS provision of housing for section 4 “hard case” asylum seekers would continue and would not be affected by the contract renewal programme.