Ukrainians hunt for new homes

UKRAINIAN refugees in the Henley area could be left homeless or have to live in hotels as their six-month stay with hosts comes to an end.

Many face a deadline of just five weeks to find accommodation before the Homes for Ukraine housing placement scheme ends.

They are being helped by their hosts to find new accommodation but have been left frustrated by the lack of social housing and unaffordable property prices.

The Ukrainian families, many of whom have children, are worried that they could end up with nowhere to live.

Government data shows that 27 Ukrainian households in Oxfordshire were either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless by the end of August.

Anfisa Vlasova left her flat in Kharkiv with her four Yorkshire terriers at the start of the war and is now living with Jane and Rev Dr James Mather in Gallowstree Common.

Her six-month stay comes to an end on November 10 but she said many landlords were refusing her accommodation because of the dogs. She said: “It is scary as otherwise I will have no home. I cannot go back to Kharkiv because of the war and I can’t find anywhere here.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen but I just have to keep looking. I have tried to contact the Mayor and I will now contact MPs. To be a frank, in a month I might be homeless.”

Ms Vlasova and her hosts are part of a network of refugees and hosts across the Henley area co-ordinated by Rachel Head, from Gallowstree Common.

Ms Head, 58, is unable to host guests at her house but has facilitated the arrival of 36 refugees since the start of the war.

She has sorted their visas and matched them with hosts as well as getting them sim cards and setting up bank accounts and applying for universal credit.

Many of the Ukrainians have now found jobs while their children are settled in local primary schools. Twelve members of the group are now actively looking for housing.

As the scheme comes to an end, hosts are left with three options — extend their guests’ stay, become their landlords, or end the arrangement. Hosts are paid £350 a month by Oxfordshire County Council to look after their guests, which will continue if they choose to extend the arrangement.

The Government has introduced the Ukraine Extension Scheme, allowing refugees to stay for three years without requiring a sponsor and there are options to switch to a work or study visa.

But Ms Head believes it should have done more sooner.

She said: “The bottom line is this is a mess. It has been a do-it-yourself situation since the beginning. The Government abdicated responsibility for helping refugees. It never wanted to do this in the first place and it hasn’t thought about what the next stage is. The rest of Europe was very much quicker to put requirements in place.

“We now have 95,000 people in this country under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, another 35,000 under the Families scheme and there is no thought to what we do next.”

Kristina and Huib Stitt host a family of six Ukrainians at their home in Kidmore End, including three children aged three, six and 10. She has formed a close bond with her guests since they arrived in May, baking bread with grandmother Svitlana and brownies with Marharita, six.

However, as the Ukrainians’ six-month stay comes to an end, Mrs Stitt has begun searching for accommodation in Reading for the family.

Private housing for six people is too expensive for the family, who are on universal income, and they cannot stay in houses of multiple occupation with children.

Mrs Stitt said estate agents had told her the family would need to have an income of more than £60,000 a year to even get to the reference stage of applying for a property.

She said: “The Government abdicated responsibility and thought sponsors like myself would buy them some time to get a plan in place. We are now seven months down the line and that plan is still not there and what’s happening is they’ve given the responsibility to the local authorities who are just playing catch-up the whole time.”

The d:two centre in Market Place offers free lunches to Ukrainians on Tuesdays and there is an online support hub for refugees called MotherSisterDaughter.

The hub runs Wednesday coffee mornings at Trinity Hall in Harpsden Road and helps with donations of toiletries, clothing, and food.

Founder Gemma Birch said some refugees were panicking. She said: “We had a lady in who was in tears because her term is coming to an end and she has no place else to go. She has a 12-year-old son.

“These are people who have been displaced from their homes and come to our wonderful community in Henley. They have been settled with schools and jobs and are now panicking because they have nowhere to go. A lot are either single ladies or women with children.

“We have tried desperately to find housing by networking with people in the area, searching for places through a friend of a friend but it is very stressful. We are desperate for people to host and for landlords with properties on their books to maybe consider staggering rental payments.”

Matthew Davis, from Peppard, has hosted a family of refugees at his home in Peppard for almost six months and is urging other residents to now offer to do the same.

In a letter to this week’s Henley Standard, the retired estate agent said: “We and lots of other hosts are happy for our guests to stay but for various reasons some hosts are having to say goodbye to their guests.

“This means that a number of families with no immediate prospect of a return to Ukraine but who are now well settled in and around Henley will need to find new homes before Christmas.

“Lots of local people intended to provide accommodation but didn’t quite get round to it and may think the need has passed. Our experience of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, our lovely family and the local support has been very positive. We urge anyone who thinks they can help to take the plunge.”

While some of the refugees speak basic English, others speak none. Over the summer many attended a series of English conversation clubs held at the Friends Meeting House in in Northfield End, Henley.

Organiser Diana Barnett realised there was a need for accredited English courses and up to 40 Ukrainians are now taught English as a foreign language by the Windsor Forest Colleges Group at the meeting house.

Ms Barnett said: Many of the Ukrainians we have in our midst are professional people, who have left prestigious jobs. Lots of them have part-time jobs in shops and cafés in the town. Once their English is up to a good level, they are going to be valuable employees.”

South Oxfordshire District Council said it aimed to work with and support Ukrainians.

A spokeswoman said: “Where guests are not ready to pay for private rental accommodation, we are encouraging both hosts and guests to discuss continuing their existing arrangement where
possible.

“Where this is no longer possible, we will investigate rematching them with another host.  If sponsors are unable to continue the arrangement beyond six months, they should give their guests two months’ notice.”