A second consortium of housing associations could take on Home Office contracts to house asylum seekers from 2005
Novas-Ouvertures wants to follow the example of South Yorkshire Housing Association and Yorkshire Housing, which have provided temporary accommodation for asylum seekers since 1999 through a consortium called Safehaven.

Novas has 14 members including North West London Housing Association and Bridge HA.

Maria Donahue-Mills, chief executive of Novas-Ouvertures, said: "We are looking positively at the opportunity of taking on National Asylum Support Service contracts.

We are actively exploring it."

The next Home Office contracts to provide NASS accommodation will begin in April 2005.

Tony Stacey, chief executive of South Yorkshire HA, has asked the Housing Corporation to publicly offer its backing to registered social landlords that take on NASS contracts. He said: "If the Housing Corporation could be a little more public about its goodwill, we could persuade more housing associations to have a go next time."

Bill Payne, chief executive of Yorkshire Housing, has encouraged other social landlords to house asylum seekers, rather than leave it to the private sector.

He said: "The new contracts are coming up so this is the time for other housing associations to be thinking about whether this is something they want to get involved in.

"The more housing associations that are involved the better, because we understand the business of supported housing."

Writing in Housing Today last week, Lord Richard Best, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "Associations might be expected to be front-line providers for this new group, [but] reactions within the housing sector have ranged from the extremely positive to the apathetic and the hostile."

A Home Office spokesman said: "It is too early to say who will be actively encouraged to take on these contracts."

  • The government is also set to publish new guidelines limiting the number of appeals asylum seekers can make against negative decisions. From next month, asylum seekers will only be allowed one appeal.

    • Source

    Housing Today