Maria, a mother in her forties, lives with her four children aged 13 to 22 in a hostel near Finchley Road. The five of them occupy two bedrooms that fall on either side of a corridor shared with other families.
The hostel is run by the local council, which provides shelter and energy to the homeless in exchange for a contribution calculated on their earnings. But the space is so cramped that Maria does not have a bedroom of her own. “I sleep in my kitchen,” she said. “I’ve been there since the day we came.”
