Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether resettled Afghans who reject two offers of accommodation will be considered intentionally homeless or will still be able to apply to a local authority for homelessness assistance.

Homelessness is a devolved matter, but in all parts of the UK Afghan households would be able to apply for homelessness assistance if asked to leave bridging accommodation, following rejection of two appropriate offers of accommodation.

In England, the local authority will have duties to try and help them secure accommodation to 'relieve' their homelessness. These duties apply irrespective of the reason for them becoming homeless. If the local authority has been unable to relieve homelessness within 56 days of accepting the duty, they will have to decide whether a longer term housing duty is owed, including assessing if the household is intentionally homeless.

Housing authorities must not adopt general policies which seek to pre-define circumstances that do or do not amount to intentional homelessness. In each case, housing authorities must form a view in the light of all their inquiries about that particular case. Guidance about the law relating to intentional homelessness in England is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homelessness-code-of-guidance-for-local-authorities/chapter-9-intentional-homelessness.