‘Illegal’ to continue housing homeless, city council warned
Councillors have been warned it would be illegal for Edinburgh to continue housing 50 homeless people classed as having “no recourse to public funds” once the Covid-19 crisis is over.
But housing convener Kate Campbell has pledged to work with other councils, charities and the Scottish Government to find a way to ensure people are not thrown onto the street.
Councillors sought clarification of the legal position over UK government legislation dictating that many migrants should have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), which includes housing.
A report to the housing committee says: “Continuing to provide accommodation post-pandemic would likely be deemed to be illegal and may prejudice a service user’s immigration application and future status.”
It also says that if the council were to continue housing those with NRPF while other local authorities did not, people assessed as having NRPF from the rest of Scotland and the UK could come to Edinburgh,
But Ms Campbell said there was a lot of work going on to see what could be done.
“The report sets out the legal position, but this is so important there will be a lot of collaborative working to look at how we can address it because we don’t want anyone to be destitute,” she said.
“I know Scottish Government ministers have written a number of times to the UK government to ask them to rethink this in terms of the legal position, but they have not had a positive response.”