In 2022, Fadekemi and her family were forced to move out from their house as the landlord wanted to refurbish it. When the council refused to accept her children’s birth certificates as proof of identity, the family was forced into homelessness. She tells their story. 

“I was born in Nigeria. After my studies, I worked for various finance companies. I met my husband and we got married. He moved to the UK to study then I joined him later with my first child who is 20 now. When I got here, I had two more children, who are now aged 16 & 12. 

“When we arrived, we got leave to remain but not indefinite leave to remain. This means that every two and a half years, me, my husband and my oldest child have to apply to extend our visa. We’ve done this for four times so far and after ten years, we’ll have indefinite leave to remain which means we are no longer subject to immigration control. The last check in we have to do is in January 2024.

Falling into homelessness

“In 2022, our landlord told us to move out as he needed to refurbish the house. We informed the council about this as we couldn’t afford to move. We filled in the homeless form but then we got our possession letter to move out. 

“Then, we received a message from the council saying they needed to see my youngest children’s British passports. They hadn’t asked for that once throughout the process. They had only asked for their birth certificates and our proof to live in this country. Now the council was saying they aren’t able to qualify us for housing without their passports. 

“It was too late then. The process to apply for passports was going to take a long time and a lot of money. This wasn’t right as they were born here. It’s just me, my husband and my eldest that have to renew our visa, not them. We had to save money for our visas, so I wanted to make sure we had our indefinite leave to remain first. We knew then we were going to be homeless. 

“We spent two months in a hotel. It was really bad. We had to move from one hotel to another. There was no means of cooking. We had to wash our clothes in the bath. It was terrible. The children were so down. We had to wake up so early in the morning because the hotel was one and a half hours away from their school. My daughter was so sad, she would always cry. It was a terrible time for us honestly. 

Finding a brighter future with Crisis

“That’s when I went to Crisis. Caroline, my lead worker came in and she promised to help which she did. 

“Crisis gave us money and supported with liaising with the council. Applying for passports was thankfully quick, and within a month, we received confirmation of the children’s nationalisation. With Crisis’s support, we took the letter to the council and then they started to look for a house. However, then they said there are a lot of people in the queue, so we have to look for a private house. 

“We’ve now moved into a three-bedroom flat, though it’s overcrowded and my sons have to share one room, it’s not a hotel. We got it from the council but it’s still private, so rent is high. 

“When we collected the key for our house, there wasn’t any furniture, but we were still happy to sleep on the floor. We were like, “Thank you, God.” Crisis supported us to get chairs, a dining table and a washing machine. 

“Kudos to Crisis because they really helped. Without them, I don’t know what would have happened. 

“My husband is still working, and I also got a job now. I work with young people who have autism. I help them to do their day-to-day activities, take them to their appointments and cook for them. I love what I do.

"I can cook jollof rice now. Our children love it.”