Hosting is when a household agree to put someone up in a spare room in their house.

Hosts are not paid to do this – they offer this freely as an act of humanitarian support.

Hosts also agree to provide food and laundry facilities and to welcome guests into their household for a few weeks or a few months at a time.

Hosting creates breathing space at a point of acute crisis. It reduces immediate risk of harm, prevents rough sleeping, and offers stability while guests seek legal advice and plan next steps.

Hosting is time-limited and clearly structured, with boundaries and support in place, so both hosts and guests know what to expect.

Every guest is someone whose asylum application has been refused.

After refusal, all financial support and housing are withdrawn. Many people experience long periods of homelessness and hardship and are not allowed to work or claim public funds.

Excluded from most welfare benefits, hostels, and foodbanks, people rely on the care and solidarity of local communities to stay safe.

Many are unwell, disabled, or living with the effects of trauma. Most have little understanding of what steps they can take to regularise their stay in the UK or restart their asylum claim.

Our guests cannot access welfare benefits, homeless shelters, or mainstream foodbanks.

Guests stay with us for around nine to twelve months.

During this time, trained volunteers and staff provide steady, practical support

All Hosts offer a safe place to sleep, access to washing and cooking facilities and a sense of dignity and belonging

Stays usually last between one week and three months, and you’ll receive full training, ongoing support, and 24-hour backup from the LASSN team..

We help guests access specialist legal advice, prepare evidence, and attend key appointments. We support people to register with GPs, manage ongoing health needs, and access mental health services where appropriate.

Guests receive help to understand their options and plan next steps, whether that is making a fresh asylum claim or exploring other routes to regularisation.

We encourage guests to take part in local life, including volunteering, so people can rebuild confidence, skills, and everyday routines while they work towards a safer, more stable future.

“Staying with my host for ten months gave peace to my mind, knowing I was going to sleep in the same place every night. I was making a 20-year application — I had so much paperwork and stress. This place helped me to focus. She was friendly, I could talk to her, and she trusted me with a key.”

Hosting save lives.

It replaces street homelessness with safety at moments of acute risk.

We have hosted guests undergoing kidney dialysis and chemotherapy, where missing appointments would have life-threatening consequences.

Many arrive carrying the effects of war, torture, and long periods of insecurity within the immigration system. A stable home reduces crisis, enables treatment to continue, and creates the conditions for recovery.

Hosting also builds connection: guests are welcomed into ordinary home life rather than emergency shelters.

The impact is direct and human: fewer nights on the street, continuity of care, reduced risk of serious harm, and dignity at a point of extreme vulnerability.

We provide safety and support to people who have nowhere else to go.

“I got the feel of a home. Having the luxury of a private and personal space was so important. It gave me the chance to keep myself together and start to live again.”

Become a Host – Open your spare room to someone with nowhere else to stay.

1. Join a Cluster – If you can’t host full-time, this might work for you.

A Cluster is when three households work together to host one guest. Each household hosts for one week at a time, on a monthly rotation. This shared approach makes hosting manageable for people with busy lives.

By working as a group, you create stability for the guest and share responsibility with other hosts. No one hosts alone, and support is built in.

A Cluster is a good option if you want flexibility, prefer shorter hosting periods, like being part of a small team.

2. Become a Longer Stay Host (3 month placement)

Offering a stable home environment for around three months gives someone the time and security they need to rebuild and move forward.

Longer term hosting is perfect if you can offer a longer stay, want to build a meaningful connection, have capacity for a more consistent commitment.

“Life as an asylum seeker is hard…the Home Office…missing my family..I am exhausted. When I come home with my big piles of stress, I see her and her smile, she asks how I am, she listens and never judges. On my 50th birthday her mother had baked me a cake, it was delicious! I took it to church and everyone came running for a piece”.