ARHAG - African Refugee Housing Action Group - was founded in 1979 as a campaigning organisation for the better treatment of Migrants and Refugees. The aim was to provide a stable, decent and affordable home which would act as the platform for residents to improve their lives, support their families and make a positive contribution to their communities.


In 1989 ARHAG was formally registered with the Housing Corporation and spent the next 30 years working to become a good Housing Association. We now manage and own 917 homes across 16 London Boroughs and most of our tenants are nominated by the Councils in the boroughs where we work.

Our principal activity is still to manage, maintain, build and grow our social housing accommodation stock for both renting and home ownership, but in November 2016 we decided that whilst a stable and decent home was a good platform, the other needs of Migrants and Refugees were not being met. One such unmet need was health where we noticed that for various reasons many Migrants and Refugees (“M&R”) – particularly those who are undocumented – became isolated from the health service and often did not receive the service they needed.

Therefore, we decided to set ourselves up as a “go to” organisation and work in collaboration with partner agencies to provide a range of non-housing services as well as training and support for women suffering gender-based violence. As part of our commitment and passion for the “go to” agenda in early July 2019 we moved into The People’s Place in Stratford, which is now our head office and where we are joined by our M&R partner agencies.