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Our tennant "vacated", we were going to renovate our rental before my mum moves in but trades availability mean this might not be happening before the spring.
So, rather than leaving an empty house, where do we look for info on providing accomodation to Ukranian families?
Its far from a "sh*t hole" but would really need paint and new carpets to some areas if we were to market it for rent, but that outlay negates the revenue as it'll get torn apart once it gets the renovation.
Check your local authority website, it most likely has some information
It depends which part of the UK you are in.
Scotland is organising centrally and currently has a shortage of housing for their scheme. Irrespective from my understanding you go through a central system.
In England you, as an individual, sponsor as host a person or persons through their visa process. Your local council then pays you £350 per month for housing expenses. The refugees apply for universal credit and all the paperwork joy involved in that. Hosts are checked out by the local council.
I am, however, aware of instances where host / refugee relationships have not worked out and the council can transfer people to a new sponsor or move them into suitable properties and pay housing benefit. It would be worth contacting your local council about this.
I don't know what model Wales or N.Ireland are using.
I hope this very brief summary helps.
You can register your interest at https://www.gov.uk/register-interest-homes-ukraine
As a host you are expected to provide accommodation for a minimum of 6 months and some moral support. Some people have gone a lot further than this, and paid for flights, driven to Poland to pick them up, bought and cooked all their food etc. Sometimes this turns out well, sometimes leads to bad feelings. You will need to be DBS checked, the accommodation will be inspected, and there will be one or more welfare checks done after the guests arrive.
The government won't actually do anything to find you some guests - in my area there are a number of charities/local groups that try to match refugees and hosts and I'd recommend you look for something like that local to you.
As mentioned above some hosting arrangements have gone horribly wrong - most of the effort went into making sure the hosts were not likely to exploit the refugees, and not much into ensuring that the guests were a) actually in need, and b) reasonable people. It's not quite as challenging in your situation as the guests won't be sharing a house with you, but I've still heard of places being trashed by the refugees. All that said, most of the people hosting in my area have had broadly positive experiences, although I think without exception they've found it much harder work than expected, from managing the visa process through to helping the guests settle in the UK..