Recent data from the Greater London Authority and the Centre for Social Justice found that 51% of rough sleepers in London are non-British nationals.
Since 2022, in partnership with Refugee Migrant Justice (‘RMJ’), we have been helping people sleeping rough in London by offering free, expert immigration advice and representation. As part of this project, we are supporting people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness across several London boroughs including Islington, Haringey, Barnet, Enfield, Camden and Westminster.
Everyone has the right to a home, regardless of their nationality, and our project focuses on tackling the immigration issues of those rough sleeping, with the aim of opening pathways to safe housing. Regularising immigration status when you’re homeless is incredibly difficult, and through this project, Asylum Aid is helping clients to access housing support and secure accommodation thanks to our expert legal advice. We currently support over 35 people annually through this partnership, and since it began, we have helped over 90 people through a trauma-informed approach; ensuring that people who have been street homeless, often for several years, are treated with dignity.
By securing status, people seeking protection can begin rebuilding their lives, accessing medical support, suitable accommodation, work or education opportunities; all things that reduce the risk of destitution and street homelessness in the long term.
Alongside legal casework, the partnership has also enabled us to provide guidance and training to caseworkers from Refugee Migrant Justice in areas of complex casework that arise in many of the cases that we have come across through this project. This upskilling grows sector capacity, and ensures that specialist advice for this highly marginalised group is sustained and expanded.
Within the project, we have also worked in partnership with other charities and organisations across the sector, including St Mungo’s, Haringey Migrant Support Centre, Homeless Action in Barnet and Single Homeless Project, to ensure clients are supported holistically.
This partnership has proven results of getting people off the streets:
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78% of clients currently supported are in accommodation because of our support.
Yvonne* (name changed to protect identity) grew up in a refugee camp in Guinea following the outbreak of civil war in her home country of Sierra Leone. She came to the UK to visit a family friend but shortly after arriving, her mother, who was her only family member, unexpectedly passed away. This left her with nothing to return to, and over the next several years, Yvonne experienced the devasting uncertainty of homelessness in the UK, repeatedly losing the stability and security of having a place to call home. 
This was until she was referred to Asylum Aid in 2022. We helped her to make an application to the Home Office to regularise her immigration status based on the private life she had built up in the UK as well as complex medical conditions that she suffers from. Her initial application was refused by the Home Office but we fought for Yvonne to appeal this refusal and her appeal was successful.
In 2026, over 18 years after she first entered the UK, Yvonne was finally granted leave to remain. Thanks to Asylum Aid’s support, Yvonne can access temporary accommodation through her local authority. She is no longer homeless and has a safe and stable home for the first time in her life.