Accommodating asylum seekers is to be simplified by the introduction of a new contract, the National Asylum Support Service has told housing associations.
NASS, the Home Office branch that pays for asylum seekers' accommodation while their applications are being processed, will introduce the new contract when the old ones expire in April 2005.

Housing associations have been pressing for greater involvement in the asylum process (HT 26 September, page 12) but at the moment only one social landlord holds a NASS contract .

NASS director Freda Chaloner said last week: "For post-2005, we want very clearly to adopt an inclusive approach and to involve all the people who have an interest because we want to make the best decisions we can.

"That includes learning lessons from the current contracts. [Ideas include] a single-strand contract. We might have contracts with regional consortia to say 'you provide the accommodation and we will disperse a certain number of asylum seekers'. They can accommodate them from their own stock, from other associations or from private providers."

For post-2005, we want to adopt an inclusive approach. That includes learning from the current contracts

Freda Chaloner, director, NASS

NASS will host a symposium in November to refine the ideas before presenting proposals to ministers, Chaloner said.

Bill Payne, chief executive of Yorkshire Housing – part of the Safehaven consortium, the only social landlord to hold a contract at the moment – welcomed the move. But he warned that the Home Office and the ODPM would have to pull together to ease the transition from asylum seeker to refugee.

Currently, asylum seekers who get positive decisions often become homeless because they have only 28 days to move out of NASS-provided accommodation after their application is accepted.

Source

Housing Today