Ukrainian refugees spoke about the difficulties with housing in the UK

Families of Ukrainian refugees stranded in the UK are expressing frustration over the struggle to find their own homes. The market for expensive and substandard housing is pushing many Ukrainians to the brink of homelessness on British soil.

As an example of the problems Ukrainian refugees face in the UK, The Guardian tells the story of 22-year-old Maria, who came to Britain from Ukraine in March last year, shortly after the conflict began. She and her mother came on a visa issued under a “family scheme for Ukraine” to stay with her aunt. But when her aunt was evicted, the women became homeless. For five months Mary and her mother lived in temporary housing in south London.

“It’s really terrible, the corridors are so old and dirty,” says Maria. “The room is so small and it’s hard for two adults to live in the same room.”

Maria hopes to find private accommodation, but this is not affordable. “You have to make a deposit and have a lot of savings, but we don’t have that right now,” she adds.

Maria’s position is shared by many of the more than 150,000 Ukrainians who have come to the UK through a sponsorship program or to live with relatives. It was reported in August that more than 50,000 Ukrainian refugees in the UK could be left homeless in 2023 as the initial six-month stay periods with hosts expire without further onsite accommodation.

Anastasia Salnikova is the founder of a community group and has been supporting Ukrainian refugees as their sponsorship schemes come to an end. Difficulties finding housing proved to be a constant theme for her, writes The Guardian.

“The problems that people face is that some become homeless when the sponsorship agreement ends,” Salnikova was quoted by the British edition as saying. “It’s also so hard for people to find private housing. There are many single parents or people using universal credit, and even those who work full-time have a hard time finding housing. So what will happen is that we will have a lot more people facing homelessness when this scheme ends.”

Despite a relatively well-paid full-time chef job, another Ukrainian woman featured in The Guardian, single mother Oksana with her 12-year-old son, struggles to find accommodation as sponsorship draws to a close . Oksana has requested at least seven properties since December but has not been able to find housing for herself and her son.

“The scheme is coming to an end and I am trying to find private accommodation, but despite the fact that I make good money and have a good job in central London, I cannot find accommodation because many places are too expensive or need a guarantor, who I don’t,” the woman says. “My sponsor is well connected and he also helped me find a job. But even with all our connections and good work, it’s still not easy.”

Another couple featured in The Guardian, Natalia Platonova and her partner Andrei from Mariupol, feel like they are in limbo. Their current sponsorship is due to end in the next few months and while there is a chance it could be renewed, this has not been confirmed.

“On the one hand, we are extremely grateful that we are here and that we were able to escape and survive, our sponsors were wonderful,” the couple say through a translator. “As great as our sponsors are, we want to be independent, but we don’t speak English and we’re middle-aged people. It’s frustrating because we don’t see the prospect of owning our own place, not because we don’t want to, but because we don’t speak English, so it’s harder to find a job or a landlord to rent us out.”

A spokesman for the Department of Equalization, Housing and Communities said: “Thanks to the generosity of the sponsors, Home for Ukraine has welcomed 112,000 Ukrainians in the UK. We have provided councils with extensive funding, including an additional £150m to support Ukrainian visitors moving into their own homes, as well as £500m to purchase housing for those fleeing the conflict. All arrivals from Ukraine can work or study and receive benefits from day one, and we have increased the “thank you” payout to sponsors to £500 per month if a guest stays here for a year.”