The UK’s approach to housing refugees and asylum seekers has shifted dramatically in recent years. Traditionally, long-term private rental housing was preferred, but since 2020, the increase of asylum cases has resulted in increased reliance on temporary and hotel accommodation. As of March 2025, nearly one-third of asylum seekers were in contingency or hotel accommodation - up from just 5% in 2020.
This temporary housing is not distributed evenly; London and the Southeast now accommodate more asylum seekers than previous years, mainly using hotels. The cost of such housing is significant: between April 2024 and March 2025, the government spent about £5.5 million per day, with hotel accommodation costing roughly six times more than alternative housing types. This type of massive accommodation causes lots of problems. Luckily there are initiatives that took a significantly different approach. An organisation called Refugees at Home pairs asylum seekers and Brits with a spare bedroom, which creates a completely new level of hospitality. Amber Bauer - a founder of forRefugees decided on trying out this solution years ago and has been part of the movement and a “mom” to many asylum seekers ever since.
SPECIAL GUEST:
Amber Bauer - forRefugees founder and CEO
Nima Moradi - forRefugees trustee
SUPPORT:
"Fractured" is an original production of ReFOCUS Media Labs citizen journalists. To support this program donate on https://refocusmedialabs.org/donate
or join us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/refocusmedialabs
PRODUCTION FAMILY:
Host: Sonia Nandzik-Herman
Production Family:
Sude Fazlollah, Eli Fazlollah, Dawoud Nouri, …Citizen Journalists:
Yaser Taheri, Milad Ebrahimi, Yaser Akbari, Naqib Rasuli, Mohammad Ali Alami
Mentorship: Douglas Herman
Producers: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, Douglas Herman
Graphic Design: Eli Fazlollah for designs by Eli go to: https://refocusmedialabs.org/shop
MUSIC:
Theme- "Intro for Legends" by Bonkers Beat Club (Epidemic Sound)
Additional- "Mogul" by Blue Steel (Epidemic Sound)
SPECIAL THANKS:
To the extended ReFOCUS Family for their dedication, passion and creativity all year long. We’re not where we are today without all the effort from Florian Krauer, Louise Holm, Chryssa Kouroukli, Natalia Tsarenko, Fine Bieler, Tommaso Stingo, Nazanin Foroghi, Yaser Akbari, Dariia Stepanova, Rada Valchanova, Walker Watson, Eleonora Giacomelli, Joseph Murray, Omer Butt, Wojtek Paluch, Matthew Goncalves O’Kelly, Jennifer Perez, Jule Pehnt, Majid Bakhshi, Paul “Al” Simon, Jaime Moro Saavedra, Joëlle Hübscher, Beni Rietmann, Jakob Mayr, Jurek Edel, Francisco Ibanez, Bart Van Son, Federico Bustamente, Myriam Rey, Lotta Luley, Federico Rinaldi, Fatima AlAli, Karina Kozłowska, Grace Neely, Steve Otieno, Mousa Al Zidane, Marion Olang, Beryl Waindi.
CONTACT:
Thoughts or questions about this episode? Suggestions for topics we can cover later in the season?
Contact: sonia@refocusmedialabs.org
53 min