£2.6m spent to house homeless refugees in Shropshire

A huge funding boost was provided in Shropshire to assist men, women and children who have recently fled war-torn Afghanistan.

Yesterday, Shropshire Council announced £2.62m would be spent on housing for homeless refugees in the region. From the large sum, £1.2m has come from the government and overall, the money will fund 10 new properties.

The announcement comes after councillors agreed to spend £7.6m on up to 30 homes for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees at a meeting in March, which included £3.2m from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund.

Nine of the 10 proposed new homes will be offered to households currently being put up in bridging hotels in the West Midlands, while the tenth will be used as temporary accommodation. The new homes will range from two to four bedrooms and the council aims to have completed the purchases by 2024.

Mark Barrow, director of place, said, while Shropshire does not have any bridging hotels for Afghan refugees, families are currently being accommodated elsewhere in the West Midlands and ‘it is important for the council to assist where possible in providing settled accommodation.’

The new homes that have just been announced come as an addition to 30 homes which are also being provided from round one of the funding which was agreed by councillors at the March meeting.

A report to councillors outlines the local authority has now been allocated £1.2m in round two of the fund. It intends to match fund this with £450,000 from ‘section 106’ funds collected from housing developers, plus £970,000 of borrowing.

All 40 homes from both rounds of the programme will be used to alleviate wider homelessness pressures once the immediate need to help refugee families who have been affected by the conflicts in Ukraine and Afghanistan has been completed. 

Image: Ra Dragon