Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC): Refugees Welcome
Landlords needed
- Can you help refugees? Can you offer a house, a studio, or a flat?
- Are you a local landlord or interested in registering as one?
- Do you know local landlords and can help spread the word?
In response to the Syrian refugee crisis the RBKC Council agreed in October that the Royal Borough should offer to resettle 50 refugees from Syria. The refugees will be resettled as part of the Government’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme (VPRS) under which 20,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees will be resettled by 2020.
The Council is now working with the The RBKC Refugees Welcome Committee to make the necessary arrangements. They are looking for privately rented accommodation for resettled Syrian refugee families and individuals. Because of high housing prices in RKBC, and existing pressures on Council and housing association properties, the refugees will need to be housed in private rented accommodation.
"At market rents such accommodation would be too expensive for refugees to afford, so our ability to accept refugees in Kensington and Chelsea rests on the generosity of private sector landlords willing to provide suitable accommodation at lower rents than they would normally charge," says the RBKC Refugees Welcome Committee. Several offers of accommodation have been made, but more is urgently needed. Because of the depth of public sympathy and support for Syrian refugees' plight the Council and the Welcome Committee are hopeful that further such offers will emerge.
Landlords would be paid at the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and would need to be able to offer housing of good quality to meet the needs of resettled families, that is available to let for 3 years.
Help make a difference!
Interested? Contact Ffion or Maria at Migrants Organise (formerly Migrant and Refugee Communities Forum) at welcomecommittee@mrcf.org.uk or 020 8964 4815.
To know more: Visit https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/rbkc-refugees-welcome-committee