Southwark had the second highest proportion of households living in temporary accommodation of all London boroughs last year.
The situation for newly-approved asylum seekers is most desperate, according to independent body Healthwatch Southwark.
Research and project officer Ruman Kallar said: “We saw a lot of people that just had to get significantly more unwell to access housing.”
In one case, a man who had been made homeless after leaving Home Office accommodation was stabbed, and found to be diabetic at a follow-up appointment for his injuries.
Kallar said: “It was only because he got stabbed that he was able to get housing.”
Healthwatch Southwark is part of a network of over 150 local Healthwatch bodies working to tackle health inequalities across the nation.
The health and social care champion is independent and aims to hold NHS leaders and local decision makers to account.
Feedback from Southwark residents highlighted poor conditions and housing instability as major factors affecting wellbeing, raising particular concerns for those who have received their asylum status and have had to leave Home Office accommodation.
Stress relating to housing was flagged by more than half of participants in the health and social care champion’s research in the borough.
Feedback demonstrated that the two major causes of stress were navigating the housing system and the poor conditions of accommodation.
Navigating the housing system
Asylum seekers will either receive an eviction notice or decision on their asylum claim, giving them 28 days notice to leave Home Office accommodation.
However, Kallar suggested some individuals had been told they must leave their accommodation on the same day.
She said: “When people are in hotels, they’re not given any information on what’s going to happen to them or where they are going to live once they leave the hotel.
“They haven’t been given any information up to that point about what they do to find somewhere else.”
There has been debate as to whose responsibility it is to provide such information in the transition between Home Office and local authority care.
A spokesperson for Southwark Council said that it keeps records of households that have been assessed as needing support to secure alternative accommodation, once their asylum claims have been determined.
Kallar said: “What we are finding is that those who are housed, because they are housed in temporary accommodation, the council sees that as the end of their duty.”
Many of these individuals do not know who their housing officers are or how they can contact them, forcing them to seek support from voluntary groups to make a housing application.
While the council runs a scheme providing deposits to secure private rental accommodation, Kallar suggested that landlords often refuse to work with the council because of ‘a history of missed payments’.
Despite a ‘generally effective’ system in place to house families with children, many single adults are left to become street homeless, including those with health needs, says Kallar.
Supported accommodation is available for those with exceptional health needs, however questions have been raised regarding both the eligibility criteria and the conditions of this housing.
The categories of priority need which the council follow are detailed in the homelessness code of guidance for local authorities.
Priority need includes ‘a person who is vulnerable as result of old age, mental illness, learning disability, or physical disability’.
Poor housing conditions
One individual Healthwatch Southwark had spoken with was an older man housed in temporary accommodation due to ‘really severe’ health needs, as well as being deaf and mute.
Kallar said: “He was being bitten by cockroaches every night.
“The council told him that, because the accommodation was temporary, they could not make reasonable adjustments for his condition.”
The council say they asses all housing applicants with ‘the aim of preventing or relieving homelessness’, taking into account the reason for homelessness and a household’s need for support.
For households who join the council’s housing register, further allocations scheme criteria applies.
A key feature of the allocations scheme criteria is ‘local connection’, which means either having lived in-borough for five years, unless ‘there is a very specific reason why you need to live in Southwark (for example very severe social or medical needs)’.
However, an important distinction is that a homeless person who has been placed in temporary accommodation in Southwark by another local authority ‘will not normally be considered as meeting the local connection criteria’, as this remains the responsibility of the other local authority.
Healthwatch Southwark’s manager, Rhyana Ebanks-Babb, shared the story of an individual in another borough, who was housed outside of the city despite receiving dialysis treatment at a London hospital.
This individual was not able to transfer to a nearby hospital for treatment as they did not know how long they would be housed outside of the city.
Being housed outside of the city meant ordering taxis two to three times a week and often having to shorten appointments because they had not been confirmed in time for the individual to reach the hospital.
Ebanks-Babb said: “They would get an appointment confirmation a few hours before, and then only be able to do one hour of dialysis before the clinic closed.”
“The government marking their own homework”
Local Healthwatch bodies have been marked for closure since a government announcement last summer stated a range of services would be closed amidst efforts to streamline NHS feedback.
A timeline for the closure has not been provided, with an announcement expected in the coming months.
A petition calling for the decision to be reviewed has gathered more than 10,000 signatures.
Ebanks-Babb said: “There have been a lot of concerns raised around the government marking their own homework.
“It will definitely impact the way that we work and our place within the system.”
She said many individuals have highlighted how the organisation’s projects have allowed them to have their voices heard.
“A lot of the project work we have done has focused on historically underrepresented groups,” she said.
Southwark Councillor Portia Mwangangye, Cabinet Member for Council Homes, said: “I have lived in temporary accommodation on the Aylesbury with a mother who has a disability, so I know firsthand why it’s important that our residents’ safety and health is taken seriously.
“Our vulnerable residents’ situations are absolutely considered when assessing them for temporary accommodation. Factors such as age, illness, learning or physical disabilities and more are looked at as part of the process.
“We will always look to build and improve on these processes and in November 2025, the council completed a comprehensive needs assessment of residents living in temporary accommodation, involving partners including Healthwatch.
“The assessment includes a number of recommendations to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for those living in temporary accommodation, and we are now working with partners to implement these.”
A government spokesperson said: “This government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well underway, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.
“For individuals granted leave to remain, we are committed to successfully transitioning them from asylum accommodation, working with local government to mitigate the risk of homelessness.”
Featured image credit: Olga Lioncat via Pexels
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