Living at a reception centre or with a host family

If you are staying with a host family and are offered a lease so that you can have longer housing, it is important to be well-informed about other options of accommodation, for example.

You can take the rental contract, before you sign it, to a walk-in clinic or to an online consultation hour of VluchtelingenWerk Nederland. During the consultation hour, they can check whether it is a fair contract so that you can make an informed decision. You can use the appointment scheduler on RefugeeHelp to make an appointment for an online consultation hour.

Should you not want to use those options above and sign the rental agreement, it is important that both you and your host household de-register from RefugeeHomeNL.

RefugeeHomeNL is ending on 31 December 2023. You can still receive support from RefugeeHomeNL until 31 December. After that, you need to decide together with your host family whether you can continue to live with your host family in 2024 without the support of RefugeeHomeNL.

If the cohabitation is going to end in 2023, RefugeeHomeNL will guide you as well as possible around the time of departure. If you decide not to live together anymore, you do have the right to a place in a municipal reception centre.

If you come to the Netherlands as a refugee from Ukraine, you get money for food, clothing and other personal expenses. This is called a living allowance. You get this money as long as you do not have your own income. Both adults and children are entitled to this money.

You may receive less living allowance at the municipal reception centre than with a host family. This is because the municipality may pay part of the living allowance in kind. For example, as food and drinks.