No safety net for us.. and no home
Family visa mum and son’s housing misery
A MUM who tied the knot in Kyiv to the sound of air raid sirens fled to the UK – only to become homeless in housing minister Michael Gove’s constituency.
Oleksandra Smirnova, 34, left with son Leon, five, and dog Azi.
Her DJ husband Anatoly Topolsky, 45, stayed behind in Ukraine and will head into battle any day now.
The trio arrived in the UK on the family visa scheme on March 29 to stay with her sister-in-law in Frimley Green, Surrey – Mr Gove’s back yard.
But for legal reasons involving background checks, her sister-in-law was forced to turf them out or risk losing her job as a childminder.
After getting little help from Surrey Heath Council, Oleksandra was forced to take Leon out of school and move 180 miles to stay with pals of her sister-in-law in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
She told The Sunday Mirror:
“The uncertainty is awful. The time from March 29 to April 19 was the first since the start of the war when I stopped watching the news every day. I could calm down a little, my son was in school... I felt comfortable for the first time in weeks.”
Surrey Heath did eventually find a property but the owner refused to take her “without explanation”. Oleksandra said: “Now I’ve lost my one chance in a million to find good accommodation.”
The council has since offered her a hostel space 20 miles away.
In March Mr Gove announced the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which gives refugee sponsors £350 per month. But his department MINISTER Michael Gove has been criticised for doing little to help the 20,800 who have so far arrived on the family visa scheme.
Oleksandra, meanwhile, has been back to Kyiv twice, including last week to swap rings with Anatoly.
She said: “I don’t know when I will see him again.”
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities was asked
for comment.