Conservative MPs – of whom 68 are landlords, as your editorial points out – have voted to delay not only section 21 eviction reform but also legislation to make rental property fit for human habitation (The Guardian view on rising homelessness: a crisis made in government, 23 October). However, there is another particularly nasty calculated cause of homelessness.
Asylum seekers who are granted leave to remain (refugees) are now given just seven days to vacate their hotel or other accommodation, find an alternative, get a national insurance card, find a job and register for universal credit – which can take five weeks to come through. Since they have been forbidden to work while seeking asylum, most have no UK references or deposits, while landlords, not unreasonably, request both. Many become street homeless, calculated to evoke animosity.
