The added cost of housing a refugee family

I think the costs are likely to be carried by the hosts. Can't imagine there will be much help.

We are thinking about it too.
It's a minimum of 6 months apparently.

That's what I've been reading NotSpaghetti.
There's lots of things to consider.
Because of the rising energy prices, on a cold day we will layer up and keep to one heated room. But I can't see that working with babies or young children in the house. They need to be warm.
The whole house will need to be heated.
Also there will be the extra baths and electricity use with a young family.

The house will be warmer with more people in it. I've noticed when all my children come home we don't have to put the heating on as much. I think you must get some sort of payment to cover bills. Why don't you contact one of the agencies and just enquire? No one will force you to do anything.

Good advice JaneJudge

I've been thinking the same thing snowberryZ as I live alone but have 2 spare bedrooms that could be used for a small family. I think more information is due to be released on Monday so will be interested to see what support is going to be available.

I think you are right to be cautious SnowberryZ it is probably best to wait and see just what is being offered, when how etc.
Like you we are very used to being on our own with our own routines and with DH nearly 80 it won't be for us I am afraid. I am guessing the majority will be mothers and children and I do think the elderly have to seriously consider how they will cope with small children in the house all day. It will take a lot of organisation and I wonder if it has been suggested as many Afghan refugees are still stuck in hotels which is not good for families. Of course just thinking you may be much younger than us.

There's a site called Refugees at Home which has loads of information.
It's well worth a read through.
But, I can't find anywhere on there that discusses financial support.
On that site there's a form where you can email for more information, but it seems a bit grabby to ask them whether there's any financial support for the hosts!
Unfortunately it would be a deciding factor for us, as even though we have the room, we are on a very limited income, which I imagine a lot of people are at the moment.

Yikes, the postman's just delivered the council tax bill this morning and it's through the roof.

I think you should be careful too. There’s a lot to consider. When my daughter and her family moved in with us for two months there were a lot of teething troubles although we all settled down happily after a week or two. It may not be so easy with strangers, however much we feel for them. Added expenses, language difficulties, different generations, a lack of privacy, not to mention traumatised children in the house could be very difficult to cope with, especially for older people. I think we’ll stick to a regular monetary donation.

If things are already tight it would probably be better to hold off. There's bound to be some extra expense and the atmosphere may soon become tense with the additional costs.

It might be worth signing up to something like www.refugeesathome.org/ and get their emails as they will be keeping people up to date with what is happening.

If you read the FAQs they, as a charity, offer a bursary of £25 a week. I don't know how common this is and I think it will take the government some time to get up to speed and say if they are doing something.

Listening to someone from one of the charities talking about this yesterday they were saying that their shortage, at the moment, is of Home Visitors. Homes have to be checked out and they are looking for those with experience in this area.

£25 per week doesn't sound much .

Daisyanne, thsts nteresting about homes having to be checked out.
I would imagine the the whole house would have to be childproofed. Baby gates at top and bottom of stairs, lockable cupboards, sockets covered etc.
If the host has a pet or pets, there would be the added work of ensuring the dog is never alone with the child.

It's definitely more involved than people realise.
Good on paper of course.

I think that, unless you are a very easygoing person, snowberryZ, with the very tight control you are keeping over your expenditure, once the initial period of welcoming a displaced family is over, you might find it extremely irritating that someone is, say, spending 10 minutes in the shower instead of your personal limit of 5 minutes (just using these figures for illustration, having no idea at all of what timings you use) and it could cause a lot of stress.

I'd think very carefully about the implications for your, and their, mental wellbeing as well as the financial aspect.

Absolutely, MaisieD
It's not something to be undertaken lightly.

my parents and me, as a baby, were housed with another family, in a nissen hut in 1948. I see that there are still nissen huts here and there and there is also an unoccupied barracks of some sort near me. It looks tidy and I have noticed it being re-furbished lately. There will be many of these here and there. There was a large empty site of nissen huts in wales also not far from where I lived

Ukranians would want to be with family, if they have family in the uk. Other than that they will want to be as close to ukraine as possible, if they have family fighting there. They will only want to come to uk as a last resort

I really don`t think there will be a shortage of empty accommodation here and this would be preferred, to keep some independence and potentially to be with their fellow countrymen

Also, putting my neck over the parapet now, second homes would be ideal. Who needs two homes

I know myself.
Of all the people I know there are only 3 people that I can spend a long time with, and non of them are my family ?
2 of those are men that I’ve known for 50/40 years. The other is a femail friend of 20 years.

If the Queen is going to permanently live at Windsor the Buckingham Palace will be available ! I know there are offices there and accommodation for staff I suppose but there must be an awful lot of empty space. Could easily house hundreds of refugees with plenty of space for them all and lovely outside space for the children to play safely. I know that won’t happen but perhaps this is our country’s opportunity to get many of the empty houses back in use and providing much needed housing. There are many thousand of homes which have been empty for many years a lot of them council properties which is a scandal. Second homes could be used too, nobody needs to keep a spare property for holidays or weekends.

There's a corresponding thread running on MN at the moment and one of the posters has articulated beautifully my concerns

There are so many things to consider in housing a refugee. It's easy to become blinded by the feeling of need to do something to help, that the bigger picture isn't really considered, and people are caught up in a romanticised ideal of how it would work.

Right now many people are on the bare bones of their arse just trying to stay afloat with the huge increases in nearly every aspect of living. Will there be some sort of funding available from the government to help absorb the extra cost that housing refugees will entail? They will need food, gas, electric, water...they will be unable to work, where will the extra money come from?
Will there be any form of support for the refugees, considering the trauma they have been through, in the form of psychological/emotional support?

Will there be some form of support available to the families that house refugees, should things go south? How will the refugees transport themselves if they need to attend any appointments, seeing as they will have no vehicle and no money for public transport? How will those housing refugees deal with the language barrier? Not everyone can speak English, how on earth will you communicate?

You can't compare housing refugees with house shares, each sharer takes full responsibility for their share of the bills/food/transportation etc.
Having discussed these issues with my husband last night, it's not something that we're willing to take on.

More than the concern of cost, it is knowing that your home, your routine, won't be the same

The family will do things their own way, will want to cook, laundry, will require privacy (for OP to leave the room where they are) etc - and there is nothing much you can do about it (unless they are destroying property or something extreme, of course)

There could be also the barrier of language and customs

Not for the faint of heart

I wonder if one of the big empty blocks of apartments in london could be used. I know that personally, I would be incredibly grateful to the many kind people but really I would want to keep my independence as a refugee, amongst my own people, speaking my language

I've just heard a lady from Cornwall on the radio say she has contacted two refugee charities and both turned her down as she doesn't live near a city.

Seems it's more complicated than everyone just opening their doors

I will help as much as possible, but I couldn't cope with having refugees living with us. It's a definite no.
And even if I could, the problems snowberryZ quoted would be too much.

Oh and I were considering it but having looked at the Refugees at home site, they only want applications from people living in cities. I have to admit that living in a rural area with very limited public transport I can see that it would be very difficult. I'll make another donation instead.

I live on my own in a 3 bedroom house and let's face it, we do not get on with everybody we meet and it is a different ball game with a family of complete strangers living in my house.

I would not like to think that once settled they could take over my house and me wondering if I could possibly cook myself a quick supper.

I heard on TV today that they will receive whatever is paid if one is unemployed but I have never heard of the hosts being reimbursed or helped financially in any way.

As discussed and we know to our cost, belts are having to be tightened whether we like it or not. I live on the outskirts of London with good transport links but I will be staying here with my 25% single person discount from the council.