On a dark December afternoon, Frieda Schicker and Robel, the Eritrean refugee she has been hosting for the past two months, argue over who should relax on the couch and who should make tea.
“She thinks I’m too old to make tea and doesn’t like being served,” says Frieda, as Robel tells her: “I’ll do it. Let me do it.” After a tiring day studying construction at a local university, he insists on boiling the kettle himself and makes her sit and rest.
Years have passed since Robel has lived in a family home, and he is slowly acclimatising. “I’m breathing, trying to prepare myself for what’s going to happen next,” he says, petting Frieda’s cat. “I feel at peace here.”
“Try not to mumble when you talk,” Frieda says, gently scolding him for how he’ll come across when he starts job interviews.
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A room in this warm and welcoming house represents a potentially life-changing chance for Robel, who was sleepless in a north London park in early October. He couldn’t find a tent or sleeping bag and was wearing several layers of clothing to stay warm. Most passersby ignored him or quickly looked away, but one woman stopped and asked if he needed help.
He announced that he was recently granted refugee status after waiting two years for the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He had been quickly issued an eviction letter from Home Office accommodation where he had been housed for 24 months, but he had no job and no money for a deposit to rent somewhere he realized he had nowhere to go but the local park. Council staff were supposed to offer help but they never returned their calls and appeared overwhelmed.
The woman told her to contact Refugees at Home, one of three charities the Guardian and Observer are supporting this year in our appeal to help refugees and asylum seekers, alongside British Refugee Councils and Naccom (No Accommodation Network). Within days he was attached to Frieda and invited to move into one of her adult children’s long-abandoned bedrooms.
The charity, which matches homeless refugees with landlords, is under unprecedented pressure after the Home Office’s policy change in August significantly reduced the time given to asylum seekers to find new homes after being granted refugee status. As a result, thousands of people have been left homeless and poor in recent months. (This policy was quietly reversed in late December.)
“I don’t have words to explain. There’s a sense of panic everywhere,” says Carly Whyborn, the charity’s interim executive director at its Brixton headquarters. “There are desperate people on the phone every day.” In November 2022, the charity placed 78 non-Ukrainian refugees with their hosts (Ukrainians are housed under a different programme), with almost four times as many resettlements this November.
On the day I visit, there are 53 new referrals needing homes, most from Sudan, Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, and staff are checking references, discussing which host might be best suited to which refugees. Computer files show the charity has 698 approved servers, but not all of them are immediately available and many are in parts of the country where there is little demand. “We would give our back teeth for new landlords in Brighton, Hastings, Manchester, South Yorkshire,” says Whybourn.
“We’re taking the time to get it right, it’s not just throwing two random people together,” he adds. “We ask what they like and what they don’t like. We have to make sure the match goes well.” The charity does not ask questions about the refugee’s journey to the UK or the reasons for applying for asylum. “We are not the Home Office.”
After Robel contacted the charity, Whybourn asked him to send two references. One of them came from a staff member at the Home Office hotel who described how much Robel had helped young asylum seekers during his time there. “It was one of the most glowing references you could get,” he says. Asked to describe his hobbies, Robel wrote: “In my spare time I love watching football and movies, I am keen to meet new people and I am very friendly.”
Whyborn knew Frieda and her husband had successfully welcomed eight refugees in the past three years and was hopeful they would welcome another. “They really know what refugees need. Frieda said yes immediately.”
In Robel’s case, what he needed most was sleep, relief from the recent ordeal of living in the park and the deeper exhaustion of years spent searching for shelter. After she recovered, she enrolled in two university courses and began offering to cook Eritrean food for Frieda and her husband (they appreciated the gesture, but admitted they were intimidated by the intensity of the spices).
Frieda’s father was a refugee who fled Austria in 1938, which helped her start volunteering at the charity. “There have always been people coming to this country from other places; They are generally more dynamic people. You need a lot of courage and initiative to get to this point,” she says. “I feel like I’m helping people who will contribute a tremendous amount.”
The arrangement was supposed to last for the final two months but was extended to give Robel some more time to find work and a place to live permanently. He says he’s hesitant about his future, feeling too old to have real dreams and ambitions, and just wants to find someone who will hire him. While doing this, it is very important to have a home and, most importantly, an address.
“Frieda understands what the situation is for us,” says Robel. “I felt good when I arrived.”