I want to host a Ukrainian refugee – but thanks to a broken housing market, I can’t

There just isn’t space for another person to live comfortably or with a basic level of privacy in the home I rent – and affording a place with a spare bedroom in London is out of the question

There are other ways I can help refugees, including giving money, volunteering or donating emergency relief items (AP)

The government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme was launched on Monday, allowing UK residents to offer Ukrainian refugees a rent-free space in their home (or a separate residence), for at least six months. Within the first few hours of the government’s scheme going live, nearly 100,000 people had registered their interest, and I wish I’d been one of them.

I’d love to open my home to a Ukrainian person or family who need a safe place to live – but I can’t.

I live in a one-bedroom flat. There just isn’t space for another person to live comfortably or with a basic level of privacy in the home I rent – and affording a place with a spare bedroom in London is out of the question. Even if I was renting a larger property, I’d have another hurdle to overcome in the form of my landlord – they would have to give their permission before I could put my name down.

I’m not alone, either. Most of my London-based friends of a similar age don’t own their homes – they rent rooms in house shares, the majority of which don’t have spare bedrooms. Even living rooms are in short supply, because they get converted into extra bedrooms to provide yet more revenue for the landlord.

In London, the average house price stands at £530,469, according to the latest figures from Halifax. Over half a million quid – and that’s the average. House prices across the UK generally have hit a new record high of £278,123 – the strongest growth since 2007.

The UK is in the grip of a housing crisis. There isn’t enough social housing for those who need it, and there’s a dearth of truly affordable homes, particularly in the capital where many industries – including the media – are concentrated.

Too many young (and young-ish) people are struggling to get on the property ladder, largely because they’re busy paying whacking great rents to private landlords every month, which makes saving for a deposit a bit of a pipe dream. You can give up every small pleasure (thanks for the tips, Kirstie Allsopp), but unless you’re living rent-free with family, or receiving a hefty chunk of gifted cash from them, it’s not going to be enough to secure you that all-important deposit.

For me, owning a home represents safety, security and adulthood. Everyone should have a fighting chance of being able to achieve this. It seems a bit topsy-turvy that people can be in full-time work and yet a modest first home is still an absolute fantasy.

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How many people want to share their space with refugees but can’t because of housing issues? In London, particularly, space is tight. Many people are paying eye-watering rents in return for very small, overcrowded or unsafe housing. With a housing market that is massively weighted in favour of the wealthy – and people who are already homeowners – we can only hope that they will be generous enough for all of us.

In terms of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, there is still the nagging suspicion that this is the government’s way of passing the buck on to a more compassionate public and essentially washing its hands of the issue, and questions about what support will be provided, both for traumatised refugees and hosts without training or skills in this area.

Nevertheless, I’d always rather there were more ways of helping refugees than fewer, and the volume of initial sign-ups shows that many of us are ready to share what we have with those fleeing Putin’s devastating war.

It might sound like I’m making the current refugee crisis about me – but the UK government made it about me when they passed the responsibility for housing Ukrainians fleeing horrific violence over to the public.

Of course, there are other ways I and others in a similar situation can help refugees, including giving money, volunteering or donating emergency relief items. It’s just a shame that a broken housing market means that we can’t offer shelter, too.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here.  If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.