Homeless Afghan refugees in Manchester are still desperately looking for housing as anxieties about winter loom over their heads.
A freedom of information request submitted to Manchester City Council revealed 14 out of 703 Afghan refugees in Manchester are homeless.
As winter is coming closer the anxiety amongst refugees is rising, to find a warm place to stay.
Ali is a refugee who has been rough-sleeping in Moss Side said: “It’s getting very cold for us to continue sleeping outdoors.
“We are freezing.”
Afghan refugees were evicted from their hotels in August 2023, following an announcement from Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer in March who claimed that it was costing the government £1million a day to house refugees in hotels.
The Home Office had said that they would provide refugees with one housing offer, and if that was rejected by the refugees the onus would fall onto the councils.
To help the councils find housing for refugees the Home Office announced two packages – Local Authority Housing Fund where £250m was given to councils to refurbish and buy houses for refugees, plus a £35m package to support those affected by the eviction.
Deputy Leader of the Council, Joanna Midgely, had called the announcement ‘sudden’ and ‘unexpected’ and said: “Undoubtedly it will cause alarm and uncertainty and we will continue to work with all agencies involved to support those affected.”
In May 2023 the Home Office and the Manchester City Council began looking to house refugees in Manchester.
In the Home Office’s efforts only 12 Afghan refugees were able to find housing – leaving the bulk of housing responsibility to the city council.
The council was responsible finding 691 refugees accomodation, by the end of August – 14 refugees of whom still have not been able to find housing.
Out of these, a family of four people have been given living in a bed and breakfast, something that the council had called “the last possible option” given that it is only a temporary solution.
Other 10 people have been rough sleeping around the Curry Mile.
Ali has been rough sleeping in Moss Side since August this year, and has been getting increasingly worried about the winter.
He said: “All 10 of us do not have any housing yet, and the weather is starting to get very very cold.
“Some charities do come to help up occasionally, but while I apprecaite the sleeping bags, I would much rather have a bed.”
Manchester City Council were able to find accommodation for the 677 Afghan refugees, between May and August.
In May, they organised day trips to towns outside of Greater Manchester – Wilmslow, Macclesfield, Crewe, Knutsford and Cogleton – to show refugees what alternative cities they could live in.
The trips went down successfully as 451 refugees found housing outside Manchester – divided between Greater Manchester and aforementioned towns.
The final 226 refugees were able to find housing.
The constituency of Gorton – which includes Rusholme, Moss side, Fallowfield, and more – housed nearly 47% of those refugees, a total of 106.
There could be two reasons for why this has happened.
Firstly, many refugees found the Curry Mile a ‘home away from home’.
Saqid, a refugee now living in Victoria Park, told MM: “I wanted to move here because it is the closest place I have to being in Afghanistan.
“The food, the music and the people, many of whom are Afghani, remind me at home and make me feel comfortable here.”
The other reason could be the involvement of Afzal Khan.
Afzal Khan is the MP for Manchester Gorton, and from the very beginning of the crisis in Afghanistan, he has been vocal about housing refugees in Manchester along with providing them with aid.
This is not the only time Afzal Khan has been vocal about issues which directly affect members of his constituency – recently, for example, he stepped down from the shadow government, to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza.
While resigning from his post he said: “Many thousands of my constituents in Manchester Gorton have been in touch to support ceasefire calls, and I would be doing them a disservice to vote no or abstain.”
What could be surprising is after Gorton, the constituency of Blackley and Broughton housed the most number of refugees – 71 in total.
The MP of that constituency, Graham Stringer, had put a moratorium on the postcodes of M8, M9 and M40, which restricted the Home Office from placing refugees in the area.
Even after criticism from Manchester councillors, Stringer did not remove the moratorium, claiming the government was not being transparent with him.
However, the council was allowed to access the housing in the area and have used to provide homes for Afghan refugees.
A Manchester City Council spokesman said: “Council staff have worked incredibly hard to support Afghan households placed in bridging hotels in the city by the Government to find suitable accommodation.
“Thanks to these efforts almost 700 Afghans have been offered and accepted accommodation.
“We completely reject the suggestion that any accommodation offered has been outside the price range they could meet.
“No one from these bridging hotels has become homeless due to the cost of rental properties offered and anyone presenting as homeless will already have received multiple offers.”
