A elderly couple expressed sorrow for harbouring so many Ukrainian refugees through the Homes for Ukraine programme, admitting it was “a lot tougher than we imagined” to take them in.
It comes at a time when a quarter of British hosts are expected to leave the government-sponsored programme in the next weeks, blaming the rising cost of living, inflation, and energy prices.
Every Ukrainian family that is housed receives a monthly grant of £350 from the government, and hosts have also complained about delays in receiving these payments.
According to government statistics, at least 145 refugee placements resulted in the refugee being made homeless because the sponsor-guest arrangement fell apart or the housing was deemed “unsuitable.”
At their house in the tranquil Somerset town of Oakhill, Robin and Sue, both in their 60s, are now taking care of four members of the same family, spanning three generations.
The 700-person village has taken in at least 30 desperate Ukrainians who were compelled to leave their homes as a result of Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion, which has been going on for six months now.
According to the BBC, seven refugees—four that Robin and Sue have taken in and three from next door—often occupy their living room while their “immaculate garden” has been converted into a soccer field.
Sue praised the sound of children laughing and playing, calling it “the finest present,” while Robin later sighed, “It’s been a lot tougher than we imagined.”
“We’re both in our 60s, we knew there’d be some more work caring after them, and when they first arrived there was tonnes of extra work because we were ferrying them here, there, and everywhere,” he said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“Set up so they can use phone over here,” was the instruction given. “Get the bank account cleared, straighten out the cell phone contracts.”
He said, “We consider it… If we did it over, we would only invite a smaller group.
With the best of intentions, Vicki Bridges, one of the Oakhill organisers who has assisted in placing refugees with host families, issued the following warning: “If you’re a sponsor, you’re welcoming a total stranger into your house and that can be pretty tough.”
I believe we have all found it tougher than anticipated, there were always going to be teething difficulties, she told MailOnline.
The largest challenges for hosts, according to Ms. Bridges, have been linguistic and cultural difficulties.
We all live differently, therefore even if they are living in your house with you, they won’t necessarily live the same way you do.
“It might be difficult to adjust to someone living in close proximity to you; it is a risk.”
The hosts should keep in mind that if refugees have children with them, they are not your children and that their parenting styles will vary from yours.
According to Ms. Bridges, the Oakhill neighbourhood has made a concerted effort to assist one another, setting up a support group to share ideas and advice for hosts. There hasn’t been a single expulsion of refugees from the community.
It’s the same notion as the adage that it takes a village to raise a kid, according to Ms. Bridges. Without each other, I doubt any of us would have achieved the same level of accomplishment.
It also comes after last week’s revelation that Ukrainian refugees living elsewhere in the nation are being evicted by their host families as a result of delays in payments to the government’s flagship Homes for Ukraine programme.
A breakdown in the relationship with their sponsor has left 1,335 persons who came to the UK during Vladimir Putin’s invasion either homeless or at great danger.
According to The Mail on Sunday, this has happened in a number of instances as a result of protracted delays in the £350 per month “thank you” payment, which has forced volunteers to spend their own money to “fill the gaps.”
If families are ready to continue participating in the “Homes for Ukraine” programme for an extended period of time, ministers “may quadruple £350 a month compensation for housing migrants.”
As they are under pressure to give additional assistance, ministers may decide to treble the £350 monthly payments made to British hosts of Ukrainian refugees.
According to the PoliticsHome website, if host homes are ready to prolong their offer of housing beyond the minimal six-month period, the government might take action by increasing the monthly “thank you” payment to £700.
A request for further assistance has already received almost 2,000 signatures on an open letter to ministers.
The hosts requested that the charity Sanctuary Foundation increase the amount of the “thank you” payments, especially when caring for numerous people, providing housing for more than six months, and for homes who are particularly hard hit by the cost-of-living problem.
Additionally, they asked ministers to provide money for English language classes for people who have escaped Vladimir Putin’s invasion and to add monies to the housing allowance for Ukrainian refugees receiving Universal Credit.
According to Treasury officials who spoke to MailOnline, the government will keep an eye on and evaluate the assistance given under the “Homes for Ukraine” programme.
They cited the fact that the present £350 monthly payments were already tax-exempt.
In Birmingham and the West Midlands, Simone Schehtman, a volunteer, matched hundreds of Ukrainian refugees with hosts. She said: “In general, local administrations have been quite sluggish to distribute the money and this has placed some hosts under enormous strain.”
The majority of hosts anticipated receiving money by the end of April, however in Birmingham, the first payments were sent last month.
Some hosts, she said, were also receiving rewards.
In order to patch up some host-refugee relationships that had broken down due to delays and skyrocketing costs, she claimed, “I have personally transferred several hundred pounds in charity gifts to hosts.”
In order to disperse funds under the Homes for Ukraine programme, the government paid local governments in March.
However, the Local Government Association, which speaks for 361 councils in England and Wales, informed the MoS that it had to backdate payments since it had just received the funding in June.
Tetiana Bilousova, 37, and her two kids were kicked out of their home last month because her sponsor claimed they hadn’t been paid.
There was no discussion the day I was kicked out, she said.
“When I got home from work, I was abruptly informed that a lady would contact me the next day to take us into a hotel.
They made no effort to reach an understanding or communicate their differences. I was unaware that they had not been paid by the government.
Nobody was to blame, but sometimes English people forget that we had just left a war and that leaving Ukraine was not a pleasant experience.
“I wonder if the hosts didn’t understand why I was so upset and weeping.
My mother and my husband are still in Ukraine, but my children are safe with me.
Many more Ukrainians are feared to be forced out in the next weeks despite authorities’ obligations to make sure they still have a roof over their heads.
The executive director of the nonprofit organisation Refugees at Home, Lauren Scott, stated, “We are genuinely scared about what is going to happen.”
“We have received requests from various Ukrainians seeking new hosts,” one said.
Mariia Suslova, 65, was asked to leave the sponsor house she was living in with her daughter-in-law Natalia, 41, and three-year-old granddaughter Sofiia a few weeks ago.
“At first, everything seemed amazing, and we were quite thrilled to be there,” she said. Our home is your house, they assured us, but this did not last long.
The family is now residing in a hotel in the hopes of finding private housing, according to Mariia, since the hosts grew “annoyed” by having a child in the house.
Ukrainians are being trained to serve as mediators by the nonprofit National Family Mediation, which often works with divorcing families, to reduce any tensions between the refugees and their hosts.
Lord Harrington, the minister for refugees, and Vadym Prystaiko, the ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, have been writing to host families to urge them to continue.
According to a government official, more than 115,200 Ukrainians have entered the UK since the invasion in February.
The vast majority of individuals are integrating successfully, but in the small number of instances when ties with family or sponsors fail, councils have a responsibility to make sure families are not left without a place to live.
Councils may use a rematching service to locate a new sponsor in instances covered by the Homes for Ukraine programme, according to the statement.
It follows a poll released last month that revealed 26% of UK hosts wished to discontinue sheltering the refugee living with them after the minimum needed term of six months, with 25% of those respondents citing the responsibilities of the cost of living problem.
Nearly everyone asked said they had faced more expenses as a result of the programme, and around 70% of sponsors reported that inflation and increasing bill rates made it harder for them to assist their refugee.
This is true even if they get £350 a month from the government as a “thank you.”
Around 75,000 refugees who were leaving their homes entered the UK under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, which was introduced in March.
When joining up for the programme, sponsors had to commit to a minimum of six months, but the cost of living problem has caused more than a third of Britons to now be “struggling financially” because of the growing expenses of bills, petrol, and the weekly grocery purchase.
Government data also revealed that 145 placements resulted in the refugee losing their house because of the breakdown of their connection with their sponsor or because the housing was considered “unsuitable” before they had even moved in.
Councils are now worried about the number of hosts who don’t want to keep sheltering their refugee, and James Jamieson, head of the Local Government Association, is urging the government to boost the monthly “thank you” payments.
Even if rematching is possible, Jamieson warned that many Ukrainian families could have to declare themselves homeless due to a lack of sponsors or other possibilities.
Increase the thank you payment to a bigger sum, for example, so the sponsors may be certain it isn’t costing them anything.
Lord Richard Harrington, the minister for refugees, said: “We originally requested sponsors to host for at least six months, and we are working closely with municipalities to ensure Ukrainians have a secure place to live if they chose to move on.
“We are immediately reaching out to sponsors to lay out the next steps and the help available to them,” the statement reads.