Rent A Room to a Refugee
For prospective landlords
Rent a Room to a Refugee is Penrith and Eden Refugee Network’s scheme to connect landlords and new refugees in the Carlisle area to help prevent refugees becoming street homeless. If you are a new refugee interested in this programme you can find out more here. If you are a local person with a spare room, you can find out more below.
Becoming street homeless is a real risk. Once a person gets refugee status, they also quickly receive 28 days notice to leave the accommodation they have been placed in, and need to find their own place to live. This can be very difficult, especially for solo men as they are not top of the list to be housed by the council. Some new refugees, having had a good experience living in Carlisle and after having made friends, want to remain local. This is where local people with a spare room (our ‘landlords’ on the scheme) come in!
Local people in Carlisle, West Cumbria or the surrounding area who have a spare room and would like to rent it out can register to be connected to a refugee lodger. The refugees that we connect are single people (or people with a partner overseas) who will pay a fair rent for lodging, but with “excluded tenancy” rights. Refugees have the right to work and can receive benefits including housing benefit. Landlords can receive rental income tax-free (up to £7500 a year), and have the privilege of helping someone stay in the area that they want to live in and build a life.
Below is a link to the Rent a Room to a Refugee poster – please do feel free to download, print and share with your community:
“It has been a very positive experience having ‘A’ stay. It has worked out very well for both parties. The PERN Rent a Room scheme has served its purpose well. Thanks for your initial support and guidance.”
– Mike, Landlord –
Find Out More
If you are a person living in Carlisle, West Cumbria or the surrounding area (with good public transport links) who has a spare room, you can find out more about being connected to refugee lodger in the briefing pack below. Once you have read the briefing pack, you can fill in an application form to register your interest in being connected to a new refugee. Please click here to access the form for landlords. This is not a commitment at this stage.
If you would prefer to have a chat with us first, please do get in touch.