Scrap policy that gives refugees with leave to remain 28 days to find housing, say UK groups

Organisations say 28 days is not long enough to find rented accommodation and a job, leaving refugees more likely to end up on the streets after being moved on from Home Office accommodation. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

More than 60 homelessness and asylum seeker organisations have urged ministers to reverse an eviction policy that could leave thousands more refugees on the streets this winter.

Leading homelessness organisations including Crisis, Shelter, St Mungo’s and the Chartered Institute of Housing and dozens of refugee and migrant organisations have written to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and the housing secretary, Steve Reed, urging them to cancel a controversial new policy that halves the length of time asylum seekers have to leave government-provided accommodation after they have been granted leave to remain, from 56 days to 28 days.