Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned 17 3.4 Having a home ten different people – he just bounces from place to place” (Red Cross staff member Glasgow 1). The four participants who are on support have accommodation. Of the four, only Enaya (Palestine) Violet (Zimbabwe) is currently living with a friend. has problems with her accommodation. Enaya Sometimes she lives with relatives outside of and her daughter have been living in a studio flat Leicester, but she always comes back to Leicester for more than two years. The flat is tiny, with room because she is used to the city. Violet described only for two beds, a wardrobe and a fridge. It is the difficulties of not having your own home: not suitable for a young child. Enaya has letters from social services saying the accommodation You can’t be yourself in somebody else’s is unsuitable and too small. The Home Office has home. I don’t have a room of my own. I live admitted it is the wrong flat for them, but has not on the sofa. You can’t have your own things. moved them. Enaya sobs quietly and says: “It feels I’m happy to have somewhere to live, but not very bad living there.” as happy as when you have your own place. (Violet, Zimbabwe) The remaining 11 participants have to make do. Some live with partners, some with friends, some In Teesside, the Red Cross staff member reported: sleep rough and some are constantly on the move. “They might have a network of friends that they rely on”. However, she stressed that relying on 3.4.1 Living with a partner friends all the time is not easy: Samir (Algeria) has been living with his girlfriend for After a number of years, I think they feel like the past year. Before that, he moved around from they’re putting pressure on people, because friend to friend or slept outside: they can’t bring anything. They’re not getting support, so they can’t even sort of contribute Yes, too many friends, I was sleeping. to the household, if you like. They feel like Sometimes two or three days I slept outside they’re running out of options, because they because I had nowhere to go. Yes, I remember feel like they’re a burden, and they feel like three, four days when I slept outside, and it people are getting fed up of putting them up. was wintertime. (Samir, Algeria) (Red Cross staff member, Teesside) Anwar (Somalia) has a partner and they have two According to the Red Cross staff member in children. He sometimes stays with his partner, but Leeds, people “will go into periods where they he does not want to be a burden to her: don’t have any friends that can support them”. It is pressure when you live with someone and 3.4.3 Sleeping rough you don’t have anything to produce to help her. She is giving all this money, but she don’t have Aman (Iraq) is not in good health and has nothing…. She is struggling for life... She can’t problems with his kidneys. He has been sleeping pay the electricity sometimes…. How do I stay rough for more than a year: with her? It’s hard, because I can’t produce; I can’t produce nothing inside of the house. It’s been one year and six months I’m living She has too much bills. Maybe I can bring rough. I have no accommodation…. If I was something if I work.... Because I love her. So I fit, no health problem, it’s okay if I live rough need to do something for her, to be with her... outside. But myself, my situation, I am an but I’m struggling with that. (Anwar, Somalia) unhealthy man. I have a lot of problems, and this is not suitable place for me to live outside. When Anwar is not with his partner, he lives with It’s very hard. (Aman, Iraq) different people: Faheem (Palestine) has been homeless for a few I have to find someone to help me. I live in the sitting months and lives on the street. The Red Cross room, sometimes on the couch. (Anwar, Somalia) refugee service in Birmingham has given him a sleeping bag. Except for a period during 2014–15 3.4.2 Living with friends when he had support, Joshua (Ethiopia) has been sleeping rough since 2005. Many of our refused asylum seekers rely on friends at some point for accommodation. One of the staff I used to sleep in town in a doorway, at the members in Glasgow has a client who “lives with back of a hotel. They tried to block the way in.