Ealing Council are calling on the government to grant temporary refugee status to non-UK nationals to help reduce the number of people sleeping rough. 

The amount of people sleeping rough in Ealing is increasing during the cost-of-living crisis and a large number of these people in Ealing are non-UK nationals and so cannot legally work, rent, or claim benefits, and due to this cannot be helped by the council with one of their beds for homeless people. 

There are now more than 100 beds available for rough sleepers in Ealing and the council received extra funding in October 2022 from the government to help deal with this issue, but with so many being ineligible for help, they are calling for a change in the law to allow them to work, rent, study, use the NHS, and access to help them contribute to society. 

Ealing Council Leader Peter Mason said: "No one in Ealing should have to sleep rough. Everyone who needs a bed for the night in the borough should be able to access somewhere to stay and get the support they need to stay off the streets. 

"However, our hands are tied by the law when it comes to offering help to the desperately disadvantaged rough sleepers with no recourse to public funds. We urgently need a change in government policy to allow us to intervene and work with them in the long term. We can only achieve the government's stated ambition of getting rough sleepers off the streets for good by removing the obstacle of NRPF completely." 

An average of two-thirds of rough sleepers have either been caught up in the immigration system or their visa expired, meaning the council cannot help them. 

As it is there are only two reasons for the council to help these people: if they have a health condition which leaves them vulnerable or when temperatures are forecast to be at or below freezing. 

During the pandemic, these rules were relaxed and councils did provide accommodation, but since this has ended the council has no legal power to assist them.