Refugee Week 2024 - Yousef's Story

Connected Voice Advocacy supports refugees and asylum seekers through our specialist service funded by the Linden Family Fund at Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. This #RefugeeWeek, taking place from Monday 17 - Sunday 23 June, we want to highlight how this service has made a real difference to people's lives.

This is the story of Yousef, who was recently supported through our Advocacy service. His name and any other names in this story have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.

Yousef is a man in his 20s. He has a physical disability. He arrived in the UK several years ago as a refugee, and has now been granted indefinite leave to remain. His wife Zaina has also recently joined him.

Yousef had been living with his brother and his brother's wife. But when Zaina arrived, their living arrangements became untenable as Yousef and his wife didn't feel they had enough space, especially in the context of Yousef's disability and his need for specialised equipment, and the fact that they are Muslim, which means that for cultural and religious reasons Zaina was unable to remove her hijab in the home (due to the presence of a man who wasn't her husband). This tension led to a breakdown in the relationship between the two couples, so Yousef and Zaina felt they had little choice but to leave. This meant they became homeless.

Yousef and his wife were given temporary accommodation on a very short-term basis by the council while their homeless application was assessed. Unfortunately, the accommodation was not very well suited to Yousef's needs - the lift was frequently broken, meaning he had to use the stairs, which was very difficult and often painful for him. The council also decided that the couple were 'intentionally homeless', meaning they would have to leave the temporary accommodation, and would not be offered an alternative. As a result, he and his wife ended up 'sofa surfing' from place to place.

Yousef needed advocacy in order to:

• Understand his options and secure his rights in relation to housing
• Appeal the decision around 'intentional homelessness'
• Make a complaint about his treatment by the housing department

Yousef worked with his advocate to access specialist housing advice, to understand the law as it applied to his situation. This included the Housing Act, Homelessness Prevention Act, Equality Act, and the Human Rights Act. Using this, he was assisted to make an appeal to the 'intentionally homeless' decision.

Yousef was also able to work with the advocate to use this information, together with his own experiences, views and wishes, to put together a complaint about the way the law had been applied - treatment that he felt amounted to disability discrimination, and poor customer service more generally.

Yousef was given information so that he understood his options for securing housing, and was assisted in securing the highest possible priority banding in the circumstances. At his request, he was advised of sources of grant funding to help with some of the costs incurred due to being homeless.

The appeal around intentional homelessness was unfortunately unsuccessful. Yousef did not accept that his decision could be characterised as 'intentional', but chose not to take this any further as, weighing up the potential risks and rewards, he felt that it would cost too much time, energy and emotional investment relative to his chances of success. Yousef was awarded band 3 priority for housing.

Yousef's complaint was partially upheld; the council did not agree with all aspects of it, but it did agree with some, in particular that there had been some miscalculation around how many days' emergency temporary accommodation was offered, and that this had a particularly significant impact on Yousef due to his disability and the challenges this caused him in terms of packing, moving belongings, etc. He was awarded £250 compensation, which he accepted. He also prepared, with the assistance of an advocate, a response - not to further formally progress the complaint, but to simply have the right to reply.

Yousef was also granted £400 from a hardship fund for people involved in his profession, which the advocate had told him about and his employer helped him apply for.

Yousef was assisted in understanding and weighing up his options for housing (council, social housing, private). He decided council housing offered him the security he wanted for him and his wife, and was offered a place after around five months of bidding. He valued feeling listened to, having a greater understanding of his rights, a way of speaking up and being heard, and having someone 'on his side'.