Always on
This project successfully funded on 28th February 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Haringey Solidarity Fund
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us to continue supporting people who have just received their refugee status but are being threatened with homelessness as a result!
Two years ago we launched a crowdfunder in partnership with the Museum of Homelessness to help avoid people in Haringey becoming homeless. Together, we helped 23 people living in our community to find and secure their first private accommodation. Your solidarity has had the most tremendous and transformative impact on these people’s lives.
As the political discourse moves further away from our shared values of dignity, equality and justice for all, we know more refugees in Haringey will be facing homelessness and destitution. This fund will continue to be needed so we are launching the Haringey Solidarity Fund – a dedicated and ongoing platform to continue this vital work.
Why we still need your help
Our previous fund only has enough left to help just one more person, but the need remains. So we are creating the Haringey Solidarity Fund, a dedicated and ongoing platform, to continue this vital work.
The Labour government's decision to double down on previous governments' performative cruelty instead of finding practical solutions is only making matters worse. Their decision to reduce the "move on period" people have to find their accommodation from 56 days back to just 28 days, leaves many people facing impossible financial challenges.
However, WE HAVE A SOLUTION! One that is grounded in solidarity and mutual help, and was proven to work for 23 people over the last 2 years.
We now need your help to let it continue. Together we can ensure that people who have already been through so much, get a fighting chance at starting life in the UK.
Haringey Welcome is partnering with Museum of Homelessness (MoH) to raise desperately needed money to assist these members of our Haringey community with the upfront cost to rent a room.
A total of around £1,800 is needed for each individual for 1 month’s deposit and 1 month’s rent to give them a helping hand to avoid falling into homelessness and destitution.
- £500 per person is the standard support available from Haringey Council for people facing homelessness who don't qualify as “priority need”.
- £1,300 per person remaining is what we want to raise with this crowdfunder!
The practical action of making a donation here is also a collective expression of the compassion and solidarity that’s in abundance in our community and in the country. It’s an opportunity to have a direct and lasting impact for good on somebody’s life.
Housing Crisis meets Hostile Environment
Successive governments have been on a long-running mission to establish a “Hostile Environment” for migrants and refugees. One iteration of this hostility is to grant asylum seekers refugee status, only to follow it swiftly with an eviction notice to vacate their Home Office accommodation.
People housed in hotels have received less than £10 a week for months, or even years on end, and have had no right to work. This means they have no savings, no references, no credit history, and no guarantors. This creates a perfect storm for these members of our community, many of whom are also living with an emotional legacy of conflict and trauma. In other words, they are being set up to fail.
We are aware of several refugees with connections to Haringey currently facing these specific issues. We are expecting more in the immediate future, as the government makes further positive status decisions.
We may not be able to end the Hostile Environment yet, but we can counter it with solidarity and generosity for these valued members of our community. Many people in our community have helped and we know that this help can continue where the primary problem is financial.
This manufactured crisis is avoidable. Having the stability of your own personal space – a bedroom, a kitchen to cook in – is the foundation we all need to build our lives on.
How you can help
The aim of this fundraiser is to raise enough money to address the financial side of the equation. The funds raised will top up the ~£500 support Haringey Council provides for people facing homelessness who don’t qualify as “priority need”. With rents per room in Haringey currently in the region of £800-900 a month, the amount needed will be up to £1,800 for rent and deposit for each single individual.
Our target is to raise £1,300 per person to cover the shortfall left from any council support and bridge them until they either receive their first Universal Credit payment, or secure their first job.
Museum of Homelessness is able to match fund any donations up to £5,000, so your donations this winter will be doubled
This manufactured crisis is avoidable. Having the stability of your own personal space - a bedroom, a kitchen to cook some food in, is the foundation we all need to build our lives on.
Every penny you provide is critical. It gets us closer to supporting one more refugee to secure their accommodation and spare them the physical and mental health risks associated with street homelessness.
And if you can't currently donate, please share this page with anyone you know who may be interested.
Who we are
Haringey Welcome is a voluntary campaign group made up of residents from the London Borough of Haringey. We love the diversity of our community, and we believe it should be welcoming for all. We campaign locally and nationally to stop the Government’s Hostile Environment policy (manifested in the Rwanda policy, the Windrush scandal, and so on). We work to promote dignity and respect for all migrants, refugees, and other residents in our community through community engagement and outreach, and direct lobbying of our local authority.
Migration is a normal behaviour that has existed throughout human history. Forced migration results from the existence of adverse circumstances, most frequently occurring in the global south. These include conflict, social upheaval, extreme poverty and, increasingly, the climate crisis, all of which are disproportionately caused by activities of Western countries and corporations. We believe everyone deserves justice, and to find a place to call home in which they feel welcomed.
We are a part of the #Homes4All campaign to demand safe and secure homes for everyone in the UK. We know the housing crisis will not end until everyone – regardless of immigration status, ethnicity or nationality – is safely housed.
Museum of Homelessness (MoH) was founded in 2015 and is created and run by people with direct experience of homelessness. MoH is slightly unusual for a museum because it takes direct practical action in support of the community and fights injustice with independent research and campaigning. MoH stands in solidarity with homeless migrants and people seeking asylum.
MoH has legendary campaigner and founder of African Rainbow Family, Aderonke Apata, on its board and the museum has long been fighting the hostile environment. This has included protests against Home Office policy Museum of the Home Office, the 2022 report Toxic, (findings from a year’s research into homelessness, racism, xenophobia and the links between the far right and UK government policy), setting up street legal clinics for the Roma community, stopping deportations, co-producing the launch of Refused in 2023 with NACCOM community researchers and sharing other forms of practical support for migrants experiencing homelessness.
As the museum settles into its new site in Finsbury Park, the museum crew are committed to doing everything possible to help people experiencing destitution due to UK policies and are pleased we can support with this important work carried out by Haringey Welcome.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made