Opening Doors project

Opening Doors is a joint initiative of Hact and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).

Launched in September 2006, Opening Doors is testing practical ways that housing associations (in England) can meet the housing needs of refugees, asylum seekers and other newly arrived migrant communities.

This Housing Corporation and CLG-funded project aims to integrate and mainstream refugee and new migrant housing needs and aspirations and to enable housing associations to demonstrate their commitment to integrated neighbourhoods and to improve the amount and quality of housing and support available to refugees, asylum seekers and other newly arrived migrants.

Two sets of resources from this work are now available:

• a review of recent studies and reports about national and local programmes and projects working with new migrants (especially EU migrants);
• a set of 10 training modules on refugee and new migrant housing issues.
  These are available to download at Hact and also at www.cih.org/policy/openingdoors .

Who’s involved?
Opening Doors is jointly delivered by hact and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).

Opening Doors is funded by the Housing Corporation and Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).

Opening Doors HA groups are:

• Accent Group working with Horton HA, Bradford Community Housing Trust and Manningham HA
• Accord Housing Group with the Matrix Housing Partnership
• First Wessex Housing Group
• Longhurst Homes working with Tuntum HA
• St. Vincent’s HA
• Staffordshire HA working with Blue Mountain HA

These work in partnership with:

• Migrant and refugee community organisations (MRCOs)
• Other specialist housing agencies

How does it work?
The above six housing association groups have been selected through a variety of criteria including longevity of refugee settlement, diversity of existing providers and geography. The two year project will end in June 2008. As part of the project, each housing association group has been:

• undertaking scoping exercises to find out about migrant and refugee housing needs in their locality;
• setting up contacts with MRCOs and facilitating partnership working;
• tapping into existing hact knowledge, for example, to provide internal training dealing with specific issues developing relevant organisational strategies, training staff and exploring ways for taking forward ideas and suggestions for mainstreaming new migrant and refugee housing needs.

An Action Learning Set has been developed, including a balance of structured knowledge, skills development, sharing of expertise and action planning, using hact’s insights and expertise about refugee housing, as well as CIH’s good practice guide (Housing and Support Services for Asylum Seekers and Refugees 2005).

The project is also planning (as at June 2008) to launch a new migrants’ housing rights website with advice and guidance for both new arrivals to England and frontline advisers.

The website will fill an information deficit as it is the first specifically aimed at answering housing entitlement queries for new arrivals. Visitors will be able enter the site as either housing advisers or new arrivals to receive information about their housing rights, including the law on eligibility for social housing and related welfare benefits.

The site will include sections on the specific housing rights of new migrants who are: refugees, EEA workers and other EEA nationals and family members, A8 nationals, Bulgarians and Romanians, work permit holders, people fleeing domestic violence and people with social care needs. It will unravel the complex and often misunderstood position regarding areas such as access to local authority waiting lists and how the law affects access to housing association stock. Visitors will also be able to select links to relevant documents and websites, including DWP and the Home Office.

For more information go to the hact or CIH websites