Welcome to HMSC!

Coronavirus update

Due to Coronavirus, HMSC is not currently able to run its drop-in sessions. Our office is also closed.

HMSC staff and volunteers continue to work over the phone and online. Because of overwhelming demand assisting existing visitors, we are not currently able to take on new cases. For those people who have a pending case with us, we continue to provide support.

To get in touch regarding your existing case, please email advocacy[at]haringeymsc.org (replace [at] with @) or contact your caseworker. Alternatively, call us and leave a message on 07544078332 – this line is monitored twice a week. Please bear with us! We are extremely busy but will try to respond within 5 working days.

Please donate to our Coronavirus Hardship Fund

Our visitors come to us not only for advice and support with their immigration and welfare issues. Destitution support is a large part of what we do.

At the moment, even the distribution of food and other essentials is a potential risk to health. We are therefore appealing for cash donations into our Hardship Fund. A small hardship payment (£20) can make a real difference to our destitute visitors and we can arrange the payments with the minimum of face to face contact.

Please donate to our Hardship Fund.

OPEN LETTER TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES, 18 June 2020

More than a hundred charities, campaign groups, lawyers and local councillors have urged local councils not to evict homeless people with NRPF from emergency accommodation provided through the Covid-19 homelessness response. The open letter also asks councils not to share homeless people’s information with the Home Office without their consent and to lobby for an end to the ‘no recourse to public funds (NRPF)’ system. Read our open letter to local authorities here. Members of the public can sign here to show their support.

We are braced for a further increase in rough sleeping as the effects of Covid – job losses, debt, evictions – further entrench inequalities in our communities. Migrants are particularly exposed to the racialised violence that is endemic among government institutions such as the Home Office. Local authorities have the power to mitigate the most harmful effects that impact migrants and should adopt anti-racist solutions: demand the abolition of NRPF policy and practice; commit to no data sharing; provide sanctuary.

OPEN LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HOUSING, 28 May 2020

We’ve joined forces with more than 60 groups and charities across England to call on the government not to leave anyone out of the plans to end homelessness during the Covid-19 crisis. Read our letter to Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON HOMELESSNESS

The open letter above follows a report submitted by HMSC to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee’s Inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 on homelessness and the private sector. It draws from HMSC’s experience trying to support homeless and rough sleeping migrants during the crisis. Read the report here.

Do you need help during the Covid-19 crisis? Please see our blog to get the latest news and sources of help.