The added cost of housing a refugee family

Another thing to consider is, how long will this war last? You may end up with any refugees longer than you think unless yourself, or the Refugee organisation sets a time limit. I would have perhaps considered it, but Im helping a family member get back on their feet, plus I often have my grandchild to stay. For me personally I just don't have the room or the funds. My fuel bill has more than doubled, plus food and petrol prices just make it impossible for me. I will contribute to the DEC Ukrainian Appeal when I can.

silverlining that’s a wonderful story, but we should remember that it’s much easier to take in one person than a family with traumatised children. Nonetheless I think your friends are wonderful for their entirely altruistic act.

Maybe people who own houses/accommodation that’s used as holiday rentals could put people up in their rental accommodation. That would give both the host and the refugee family privacy. There are plenty of holiday lets available all over the country and I think if I owned one I’d happily allow that to be used to house a family. I think it could be extremely stressful for the refugee family to be housed with a family or older couple, in a normal family home. They’ve just escaped from war, their male family members and often older relatives are still in Ukraine, and they’ll be grappling with a new country, culture, and feeling of having no personal space. Such a difficult time for them. Of course it would be a charitable act and as such no rent would be paid.

A very close family relative met a Syrian refugee while out walking and chatted. He was invited to stay in their tiny 2 bed flat and he remained there with them fir nearly two years, until my relative became seriously ill. This was not done officially and was a totally private arrangement.
He was not allowed to work and had little if any benefit and as far as I know was not able to contribute to his keep. I assume this was covered by my relative and partner who are not in any way wealthy. He is now completely independent, working and speaks his new language ( they are in Europe) fluently and they are very good friends.

This was the second refugee they had offered hospitality to and it goes without saying that i am proud of them,. They are thoroughly decent people who deserve a medal quite frankly.

I heard on a news bulletin the Bishop of somewhere said he was willing to house a family. No idea where he lives, but many bishops live in quite spacious accommodation.

Makes a big difference if you have a couple of spare bedrooms, bathroom and possibly separate kitchenette or similar. Better for host family and refugee family also.

granfromafar

I read today that billionaire Phones 40 founder John Caldwell is offering to put up a displaced family at his Staffordshire estate. How magnanimous of him! I would imagine he could offer shelter to several families, not just one. He urges other wealthy individuals to do the same.

Johan Caudwell has given, and continues to give, millions to charity.

He is also signed up to the Bill Gates' pledge which calls on billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charity during their lifetime.

He owns an incredible home in London, which 70% of money made when sold will go to charity.

A very generous man indeed.

granfromafar

I read today that billionaire Phones 40 founder John Caldwell is offering to put up a displaced family at his Staffordshire estate. How magnanimous of him! I would imagine he could offer shelter to several families, not just one. He urges other wealthy individuals to do the same.

Maybe he could, but at least he's doing something which a lot of us feel that we can't, for the reasons a lot of posters have given. If "other wealthy individuals" are prepared to get involved too, particularly if they have plenty of room, good for them!

I wonder if they would be able to claim 'benefits' as some other immigrants can? including free health cover, free education for their children, housing benefit etc.
I think they wouild need to have a job and earn a certain amount.

Would you lose the single person discount from the Council if you had a refugee family living with you?

snowberryZ

£25 per week doesn't sound much .

... and it doesn't sound guaranteed. This is just how one charity works.

I read today that billionaire Phones 40 founder John Caldwell is offering to put up a displaced family at his Staffordshire estate. How magnanimous of him! I would imagine he could offer shelter to several families, not just one. He urges other wealthy individuals to do the same.

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.

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 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.

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 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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

£25 per week doesn't sound much .