last night

I have finished my 14 nights of sleeping outside to raise awareness about homelessness. Last night Peter joined me in the Friends Meeting House garden and I managed to persuade Sarah and Belinda to sleep inside. It was a stormy night and without the protection of the overhang I needed my bivvy bag for the first time.

After breakfast 12 of us sat round the table to see what we could do about homelessness, particularly for those without recourse to public funds. Bho talked about the Hope Destitution fund and plans for some Hope houses. We discussed the enormous problem of changing public perception of migrants as takers instead of givers and of the issue of homeless families. We talked about the reluctance of much of the 'third sector' to remember their core values and challenge their funders. It was a good meeting but sadly know one new to the issue was there. No-one new who had seen me sleeping outside or had read about me in the paper or heard me on the radio. They were all good people already concerned about homelessness. Perhaps next week others will come forward.

At lunch time we performed our final Peace Festival action when a large group of us in mysterious white overalls with the Pax thumb print on the back stood in the Upper Precinct and looked up to Antonio from the walkway above delivering a speech inspired by the 'I have a dream' speech of Martin Luther King. Afterwards we unfolded huge banners which said 'In our hearts we all dream of peace. Together we can make it happen.' It was magnificent and a moving end to the festival.

I have put the speech below as a final message of this blog. However it was sad and slightly unnerving that when a group of us in our white overalls went to the shop in the Arcade which we had been using as a base for festival activities, to pick up the loud speaker system for the speech, we discovered that some one had superglued the shutter lock and we could not get in. It may well have been the person who had glued yet another racist paper cutting on the door. It was too late at that stage - 15 minutes before the performance - to come up with an alternative. But Antonio has a fantastic voice and excellent delivery. He was heard. We must not be silenced because our questions and our messages are too important. We must continue to find creative ways to be heard.

The speech

I am very humbled to join with you today, to mark the end of Coventry Peace Festival

My name is Antonio de Jesus Nunes. I am from Cabinda, Angola, Africa and I am a refugee in Britain. I have the privilege of standing here today, inspired by the great African American Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King who famously said ‘I have a dream’.

Sixty years ago, to end all wars and for the maintenance of peace, the world produced a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But sixty years later, the world is still not at peace. Sixties years later, people still suffer the chains of discrimination.

In a sense we've come here to cash a cheque. When the architects of Peace and Justice wrote the magnificent words of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, they were signing a promissory note to which every Human was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men and women, yes all human beings would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

It is clear today, that Britain and Europe, most African States, most of the world in fact, have defaulted on this promissory note. But we refuse to believe that the banks of peace and justice are bankrupt. We refuse to be to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults within the human hearts. And so, we've come to cash this cheque, a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of peace and the security of justice.

We come also to remind the world of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time to make real the promises of peace. Now is the time for total nuclear disarmament and universal cease fire all over the world. Now is the time to make justice and peace a reality for everyone. The world must understand the urgency of the moment and that our lives are inextricably linked with everyone on the planet. We have to realize that our well being is bound with the well being of the other.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. We can never rest as long as the Human is still victim of the unspeakable horrors of war whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur or Palestine. We cannot rest as long as the world's major powers possess nuclear weapons capable of destroying the world many times over.

We can never rest while Africa, a very rich continent is still engulfed in poverty, civil wars and famine. We cannot rest while its leaders have enormous bank accounts and continue to buy weapons to further oppress their own people and while the West sell them those weapons and still milks Africa of its natural resources.

We can never rest while Africans, and other oppressed people who try to escape terror in their own countries are made to sink on boats or languish in detention centres right here in Britain and are subjected to draconian immigration laws.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still share that dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Human HEART. I too have a dream that one day the world will rise up and “hold these truths to be self evident, that all humankind is one family."

I too have a dream that we will one day soon, live in a world where there will be harmony, universal and perpetual peace, true brotherhood and sisterhood among all nations, all peoples and across every area of human endeavour.

I dream that all across Europe and right here in Britain, political parties like the BNP, with its racist policies will apologise to the world.

We need hope. With this hope, we will be able to reduce the mountain of despair to rubble. . With this hope, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood. With this hope, we will be able to work together, to sing together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will one day soon live in a free and peaceful world, where everyone is valued and respected.

And if the world is to be at peace, this must become true.

And so let peace ring from the cold mountains of Afghanistan.

Let freedom and security prevail right here on the streets of Britain .

Let freedom and security roll through the deserts of Iraq.

Let peace and prosperity be a reality in the whole of Africa.

Let peace and freedom ring all over the world, from every hill and from every mountainside, from every city and village, from every country and continent.

We will then be able to sing in the words of the old Negro Spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

help

My last night in New Union Street was a peaceful one and I slept very well, accompanied by Nancy who had come over from Birmingham. It was good to get some media coverage yesterday on Touch Radio and today on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire. There was also a piece in the Telegraph headed 'Penny comes in from the cold for meeting' which advertised the meeting tomorrow - Saturday at 9am at the Friends Meeting House, Hill Street, - when hopefully we will have lots of people who want to do something about homelessness. I'll report back about the meeting in my final blog tomorrow.

It will be a fitting day to finish on the anniversary of Coventry Blitz, reminding us that war destroys homes, people, families and communities. I have done this sleep out during the Peace Festival because of the connection with homelessness and war and refugees and at a more local level the injustice of poverty. I am concerned at the rising levels of homelessness - in Coventry and worldwide. I am concerned that it has almost become acceptable to think that some people somehow don't deserve a home - and the right to work and marry; that if they are homeless they must have done something wrong. I am concerned that refugees the world over are being prevented from starting a proper life again after the trauma of war. It is almost as if there is a perception that there are too many people in the world and so inevitably they can't all be part of society - that there is not enough room.

But there is enough room and we all matter. We all have something to offer the world and when things are going well for us we can think about those who may need some temporary help. We all need a bit of help sometimes. Closing our eyes to poverty and destitution makes us less human. I do not have the answers. I am doing what small things I can do and I am sure that if we think about this together we will be able to make progress and lessen poverty and destitution and change the processes which cause it. And we will all benefit.

young people

I realised last night that all the people we didn't know who had offered us money during the sleep out or had come up to us and shown concern, were young people. Young people are often seen as some sort of threat which is so unfair. And young people understand fairness very well.

One young Somalian friend had inspired us to do a very positive Peace Festival event today in the same space that we had the detention cage last week. He had spent time in detention so he knew what it was like, but what he wanted to say was thank you to the culture which had accepted him. He said lets also think about the good things about British culture like the full English breakfast! So this morning on Shelton Square pavement we chalked a huge plate of sausages, bacon, egg, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, toast and black pudding. Round the edge we wrote on his behalf 'Dear People of Coventry, thank you for welcoming me to your lovely city. British culture is great. Aziz from Somalia'.

Later on, in the square outside Oxfam, we performed our short play about statelessness called 'We don't want you. Go away!'.It tells the story through song, mime and narrative of a young man fleeing torture and coming to England in search of safety. He gets refused asylum and is made homeless. Eventually he is put in detention but a year later the Home Office have been unable to get entry papers to his country of origin and he is released back onto the streets. In the closing scene everyone he approaches turns their back on him. It is a powerful piece.

A distressed stateless man from Palestine came to see me shortly after I had got home. Palestinians are never sent back. He is homeless and has been getting by with help from friends for many years but is getting more and more anxious and rarely sleeps. He is a physiotherapist and has been here since 2000. What had triggered the visit was that a young Kurdish man from Iraq had apparently been found dead in his flat in Hillfields earlier in the week. Mohammed was convinced he died of stress. Apparently he was 28 and had come here when he was 19 and had been refused asylum. We rang the Home Office to see if we could get any update on Mohammed's case. In trying to find out details the man on the phone told him he shouldn't be in this country. When he put the phone down Mohammed was angry - 'he should not have said that- he is meant to be a professional". He sat for a while and then said 'I am a Muslim and don't believe in suicide, but if something doesn't happen soon I am going to kill myself. I cannot go on like this. If I kill myself I will get rest".

Young British people can also experience problems. Earlier I had popped into Connexions to find out the benefits situation because I know it is complicated between the ages of 16 and 18. Apparently if they are in full time education or training they can get income support but if they are working and lose their job they can only get JSA if they can prove they are in hardship which has to be done through Connexions. (they need to get income support or JSA in order to get housing benefit) They cannot take out tenancies but they may be able to get housing through the Cyrenians Young People's Direct Access which can give them 28 days accommodation (depending on availability) or there is the Foyer but there are long waiting lists there. Apparently the YMCA is planning a state of the art new project in Coventry. In between applications for support or waiting on waiting lists young people who have left home often experience homelessness. Usually they cope by 'sofa surfing' around their friends. But not everyone can do that. They are particularly vulnerable at this time in their lives. Connexions are great though - I have heard a lot of praise from young people about them.

It is raining hard as I write this. I soon need to prepare for my last night in New Union Street. Tomorrow I will be sleeping out at the Friends Meeting House after our evening Peace Action gathering, and then on Saturday night I will be back in my own bed. I am lucky.

failure

Micki was with me again last night. Some-one trod on her in the night, she thinks accidently. I dreamed I was very carefully and deliberately run over by a car. We are very low down when we are on the pavement. We may be open to some of the risks which homeless people face but we are not homeless or pretending to be homeless. We are there in solidarity with homeless people and to highlight the many issues surrounding homelessness.

Homeless people are often seen as failures in some way. People talk about 'failed asylum seekers'. School produces a huge sense of failure for many children. Some parents tell their children they are useless. People are not failures. The institutions fail people. 'Refused asylum seeker' is a more accurate description and puts the emphasis on the system and not the person. Primary schools try very hard to make education enjoyable and inclusive but the early exam systems produce huge pressures for everybody and work against that. It is good that SATS are being reduced.

There is this given assumption that competition is healthy and necessary. In fact co-operation is much more productive. A co-operative game is much more fun for everyone. On a global scale we need to co-operate with each other to create a just and peaceful world and to properly address climate change. Co-operation involves communication and understanding each other's needs.

Homeless people are not failures. Some people have a whole string of problems - redundancy, relationship breakdown, financial crisis. For some of those the safety net of benefits is not there.
Some have no recourse to public funds at all, some get in a muddle with the benefits system. If the person who experiences those multiple problems has had positive messages from home and school about them being a valuable resourceful person s/he will manage that well. People who come here from other countries - whether as economic or forced migrants - tend to be courageous resourceful people. But some refugees are badly traumatised by war and loss and some British homeless people have had a lot of negative experiences.

We need to change the systems which create failures and which limit people's natural resourcefulness.

trafficking

Micki and her friend Keir and also Sam were my companions last night. It was Micki's birthday so it was very special to have her with us. We took some photos.

Micki and I share a concern around trafficking - along with many other people. Trafficking is a complex and hidden issue. There are three main reasons people are trafficked - sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and forced labour. Desperate people agree to being trafficked with promises of a better future but actually they become slaves. The threat of reprisals against your family make it hard for trafficked people to come forward. If they do run away they become homeless as they have no recourse to public funds and the trafficker or the people who have kept them in servitude will have kept their passport.

Since 2006 there has been a UK Human Trafficking Centre which is trying to help the victims. and catch the traffickers. At one time a victim would most likely have been put straight into a removal centre and deported but now they are offered support by partner agencies in the voluntary sector, although they are usually repatriated eventually. The Home Office have identified 108 trafficked adults and 40 children in the last 3 months.

In Coventry a group of us have been trying to get funding to do some work on child trafficking - particularly around helping people who may come in contact with them to recognise the signs. Very often young people who arrive here as unaccompanied minors will disappear and reappear a year later.

Like homelessness, trafficking is another of those hidden tragic issues, full of secrets and fear.

We didn't talk about trafficking last night though. It was Micki's birthday and I was determined we should spend some time talking about her! In remembering the highs of last year and her hopes for the future, Micki said that one of the valuable things she had learned was the difference between pitying people and respecting them. I have talked about victims in this blog and although we should notice and do everything we can to stop all forms of oppression, we must not forget that people have amazing strengths and courage. Respect is a good positive value.

cold conditions and friendship

It was much colder last night and I was glad I took a blanket with me as well as my sleeping bag. A couple from Emmaus came by to check I was not on my own but I had my friend Janet with me who stepped in at the last minutes when the planned companion was not able to do it. Although I write this as my blog and my sleep out in fact it would have been impossible to do without the support of many other people who have accompanied me as companions or have covered my work at the Peace House or have given it press coverage or have generally encouraged me. Thank you to all of you.

Friendship is worth so much. Most of the people who come here in search of sanctuary and are refused asylum - which is about 70% - are too frightened to return. If they don't have children they find themselves out on the street, forbidden to work or claim benefits. Most of them get by with the help of friends. We ran the second day of our listening project today and I was reminded of this when an Algerian friend spotted me in my tee shirt (worn over lots of layers of clothing!) and came to talk to me. The tee shirt said 'Here to Listen' and on the other side asked the question 'How has migration affected your life?'. There were 6 of us at the train station asking this question. Like the sleep out, it is part of our Peace Festival programme.

My Algerian friend had been an asylum seeker and now had a British wife and 3 year old son. He talked of the years of fear when he had been refused asylum and before he had met his wife. Every time he saw a police officer he feared he would be detained. We talked of people we knew and of those Algerians now in detention. I was very moved when he said that that all the Algerian friendship group make sure they put money into a kitty every week and once a month he arranges to visit one of the friends in detention and take them the money. We agreed that I would come with him next time he went to see Karim.

I spoke with a woman from Saudia Arabia who said she was a student in London but found Coventry much more friendly. She said that other students don't want to offer friendship outside the university so her friends there are all from her country which she is sad about.

I spoke with three friends from Warwick University who had just got back from a sponsored hitch to rasie money for Amnesty International. The challenge was to get as far as you could in 36 hours with no money. They had got to Amsterdam and back which was pretty good going.

One of the other listeners spoke with a young asylum seeker from Iran who was catching a train to Birmingham to get medical help. He was very distressed and had been harming himself by cutting his head.

Brendan and benefits

Tim and I were a bit late going to sleep last night. I had taken our neighbours some tea and had a good chat with Mary as she approaches her seventh winter outside, when along came Brendan. He had seen my photograph and the article in the paper and seemed pleased to come across me in the street.

He appreciated what we were doing but wanted us to know that people are homeless because they chose to be. He is also homeless and sleeps on the sixth floor of a nearby car park. He reckons there are 40 people sleeping out in Coventry and offered to take us to meet some of them. It was a good offer and something the Cyrenians may find helpful when they do their rough sleepers count. But we didn't go last night.

He was a friendly guy and was bemoaning the fact that people don't smile and say hello if they walk past someone they don't know. In the summer he goes on the festival circuit with friends in a van and enjoys the feeling of community but when the season is over he goes back to sleeping outside.

He talked about how people get into problems because housing benefit is now paid directly to the person and not the landlord. It takes several weeks to come through and so when the first payment arrives it is a large amount of money. For some people the temptation to spend it on something other than rent is very great and then they get evicted and housing benefit won't help them again until they pay it back. They become homeless.

We are aware of other problems people experience with housing benefit when they get temporary jobs. This is particularly an issue for refugees who have their status and therefore are allowed to work and want desperately to work having been barred from working while they were waiting for a positive decision on their asylum claim. But it is an issue for anyone on housing benefit who finds temporary work. Of course you have to inform housing benefit that you are now working but very often by the time housing benefit stops the work has also stopped. Again people find themselves getting into arrears through not filling in the complex forms in the right way.

Brendan seemed annoyed with homeless people and what he saw as their victim mentality. It was hard to find space to put an alternative viewpoint but we had a few attempts. He often repeated that if migrants can come into the country and get a house straight away then so can British people if they get their act together.

Eventually we shook hands and he started to go but he was worried about us sleeping in such an open place and took Tim off to show him a much safer space for us to bed down. We thanked him but explained that we needed to be seen. He said he wanted to read his name and about our meeting in the next article in the paper, and left.

It was colder last night and being Saturday it was quite rowdy but we managed to sleep.

It is not surprising that some poorer people feel the most put out by migrants - whether forced or economic. It is in the poorer areas they live and it is the low paid and temporary work they tend to do. In this recession it is the poorest who suffer most.

homeless international

Last night my companion was Sarah who works with Homeless International. It was Friday night so there were quite a few drunk people around throughout the night. Around 3pm some men came and shouted really loudly at us - not with any words of abuse - just to wake us up. But we both managed to go back to sleep everytime we were disturbed. Sarah has a busy day today and tomorrow is going to India to raise money for Homeless International through a sponsored trek.

We had been talking about the effects of climate change on homelessness internationally. When she got back she sent me this list of cities most at risk of flooding according to development think-tank CGD. The cities where most people will be at risk from sea level rises and storm surges are:
Manila, Philippines; Alexandria, Egypt; Lagos, Nigeria; Monrovia, Liberia; Karachi, Pakistan; Aden; Yemen; Jakarta, Indonesia; Port Said, Egypt; Khulna, Bangladesh; Kolkata, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire; Cotonou, Benin; Chittagong, Bangladesh; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Yangon, Myanmar; Conakry, Guinea; Luanda, Angola; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal.

So many of those are capital cities with a very high population.

The other major cause of homelessness is people who are forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution. In its annual report in June 2009 UNHCR estimated 42 million people were currently homeless which included 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million internally displaced people. Developing countries hosted 80% of all refugees. For example Pakistan had 1.8 million and Syria 1.1 million. Major countries of origin were Afghanistan (2.8 million) and Iraq (1.9 million)

Before I started the sleep out yesterday I had been to the annual peace lecture and listened to an amazing Chinese surgeon who had been working in Lebanon during the massacres in the 80s and in Gaza during the recent carnage when over 1300 men, women and children had been slaughtered. The pictures she had were bloody and truthful - powerful images which came back to me as I lay on the pavement last night.

I knew I was not at risk of being blown up or shot. This is a safe country and because of that we are right to offer sanctuary to those who are fleeing war. But we also need to do all we can to reduce violence in the world. It is no co-incidence that Afghanistan and Iraq are places where the British have been killing thousands of people in recent years and they are the ones from which most refugees have fled. We have a lot to answer for.

People want to live in peace in their own countries. We can help with that, not by fuelling war through the arms trade and by sending in soldiers, but by being prepared to share our wealth so everyone has enough to eat and a home to live in. And by addressing climate change with real commitment

Giving

Last night someone tried to give us £10 and a can of coke. He was clearly concerned about us and it took quite a while to explain that we didn't need money. Us being Janet from Leamington and Ken from Birmingham - quite a regional group as Ken remarked.

We were doing the giving later as a peace festival event. A homeless person sat on a blanket in the Arcade and gave passers-by a fair trade chocolate bar, a pencil with rainbow coloured lead and the words 'I am a lovely person' written on it and a copy of Peace News. I stood a little way away. It was interesting to watch. We had a placard saying Peace Festival Event and the logo - and our PAX (Peace Arts Explosion) logo. People asked Ivan why he was giving things out and he said 'everyone has something to give'. Those who were able to trust enough to accept the offer all smiled a big smile. It was really nice and made me realise how important it is to receive.

Ivan enjoyed taking part. He is from Hungary and has no recourse to public funds and is staying in the night shelter. He is such a nice guy with a big smile. He has been in England for 2 years and was working up until 6 months ago but it had always been temporary jobs so although he had registered with the workers registration scheme he did not have the paperwork to demonstrate a years continuous employment . The recession is making it much harder for anyone to find work - particularly the low paid unskilled work which migrants tend to be offered. So now he has no work and no access to benefits. He also has MS and I have seen his health deteriorate. He has become more and more unsteady and being out on the streets all day is taking its toll. He does not have the money to return to Hungary but also he does not want to go back because he hates the way gypsies are treated. He is not a gypsy. He says he feels ashamed to be Hungarian because of the open hostility towards gypsies.

When I arrived at our temporary shop in the Arcade to prepare for this event I saw that someone had very carefully pasted a newspaper article onto the window in the door about how this country was full and couldn't take any more migrants. It took me a while to get it off. I wish more people like Ivan lived here.

party time

There was quite a crowd of us last night. As well as Bho sleeping out we also had two people from the homeless charity Emmaus and in our social hour from 9.30 to 10.30 we had three visitors - two of whom were friends. The third person was a concerned passer by who had often tried to help our woman neighbour. He was able to find out more about homelessness and it was great that he could talk with a worker and a companion from Emmaus who had often had to sleep out in the past. He is going to come along to the homeless meeting at the end of this sleep out on Sat 14th Nov at 9am at the Friends Meeting House in Hill Street. (anyone concerned about homelessness is invited)

Emmaus is a great organisation. The companions live together as a community and work in their shop restoring and selling donated furniture which they collect and deliver. Often homeless people have got out of the habit of work and this is a great opportunity to regain those skills. They can stay as part of the community as long as they want to. . There are 19 Emmaus communities in Britain and over 300 worldwide. Set up by Father Abbe Pierre in France 60 years ago, the current president is Terry Waite.

Emmaus in Coventry also offer a solidarity room to a refused asylum seeker who, with no recourse to public funds, cannot go to other hostel accommodation. There are an estimated 2,000 destitute asylum seekers in Coventry who could not provide enough evidence to convince the UK Borders Agency of their need for sanctuary. Mostly they get by with help from friends, but many have nowhere to sleep at all and the option of returning to their country is not possible beacsue they are too frightened to return and anyway their country probably won't take them.

It was fitting that there was a bit of a party atmosphere as it was Bho's birthday when he woke up this morning. Bho works at Coventry Refugee Centre and is leading the Hope Destitution Project in conjunction with Coventry Peace House, CTRIC (Churches Together with Refugees in Coventry), Carriers of Hope and Broad Street Drop In - all organisations doing what they can to address the problem which destitute people face. There is a already a fund which the organisations can call on to get emergency money, shoes, bus fares to Solihull to sign with Immigration etc. The next step is get houses for a peppercorn rent which destitute people can live in. It is working well in Birmingham where they now have 6 houses. The success depends on the energy of motivated passionate people who care enough to achieve what can seem impossible. We need more people like that.

And we need more organisations to push the boundaries in solidarity with destitute people like Emmaus have done.

oversleeping

I overslept this morning! Sian, my companion for the night had to shout quite loudly to get me to wake up at 7.10. I had woken for an hour or so in the night because some drunk people were about and then had fallen into a deep sleep again. I forgot to take the sign last night too so we had no way of highlighting what we were doing to passers by and traffic, but our presence alone said something. The sign also produces a kind of division - we're not really homeless it implies with its 'In Solidarity with Homeless People Everywhere'.

The nights have been mild and sleep has been fairly easy - it is fitting in all the day work which is challenging me. I miss that 2 hours in the morning when I can get on with things undisturbed. I find I keep forgetting things. Went into the shop again this morning to finish the windows of number 10 and number 14 the Arcade for the Peace Festival. They look great with art work from year 9 Blue Coat school about their idea of what sanctuary means and also tee shirts painted by Yardley Street youth club and a series of drawings by Andrea about Farzad the sheep and his fear of going to sign with immigration in Solihull - like a sheep to the slaughter.

Alem came with me and was a great help. He is a young Eritrean soldier whose asylum claim has been refused. He is staying in the night shelter and has a really positive attitude despite the fact that he is completely stuck now. They didn't believe he was Eritrean or in the army despite pictures he managed to get of himself in the uniform. They never send Eritreans back - and anyway if they don't think he is from Eritrea where would they send him? He is not allowed to work or get any benefits, he can't leave the country. He is effectively stateless. What can he do? Before the shelter he was sleeping on the street. And yet he is such good company and has so much to offer society.

Off now to a City of Sanctuary working group meeting trying to find out how to make Coventry a City of Sanctuary for refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants. There is lots of good will to make it happen.

homeless women

Another fairly easy night for us. Took some tea to our neighbours but the guy on his own in the doorway still didn't want to talk. The homeless charity Cyrenians came round at 5.20am doing a rough sleeper count and pointing people towards help - Norton House and Drug and Alcohol services. I was awake but wouldn't have wanted to be woken at that time had I been asleep. I wonder what reaction they get.

My companion last night has worked in the field of domestic violence for many years. There are huge issues there for women with no recourse to public funds - refused asylum seekers, visa overstayers, Eastern Europeans who have not worked for a year, overseas students, people on spouse visas who have not been here 2 years. None of them can access any more than one night from a women's refuge as they depend on housing benefit to pay their staff and accommodation costs. No recourse to public funds mean no housing benefit.

Many continue staying in a violent relationship as there is no option - and they are usually away from
family who may be able to help. Unlike my neighbour, most women are too frightened to sleep on the street.

Children are affected too as there are now families with no recourse to public funds. They go from overcrowded house to overcrowded house. Fearful that Social Care will take their children away, they remain hidden and do not access the health and education they and their children need.

I am writing this later today as I had to go out early to set up the detention cage we had in Shelton Square as another Peace Festival action. Someone sat inside with their mouth taped. It attracted a lot of attention and people read the information about Adeoti Ogunsola, the 10 year old Nigerian girl who tried to kill herself in detention a few weeks ago, and about the British system of unlimited detention for people in removal centres. It had the words 'Liable to be detained' on each side. These are the words on an asylum seekers temporary admission papers and they remain liable until they either receive their status to stay here or leave the country. Refugees who saw it were very pleased we were showing the reality to passers by. A lot of people showed concern. There was a stillness around the cage.

visiting neighbours

Since there were three of us with both Una and Paul for company, I went to visit a homeless neighbour before we bedded down for the night. I knew that a woman sleeps in an alley near the police station, but tonight another person was there too. She has been there 6 years. They told me of another person in a doorway near y but he was either asleep or didn't want to talk to me, and why should he? Tomorrow I will take them some hot tea.

It was a very quiet night - so quiet that I could hear the regular grinding noise as the revolving poster board opposite changed its unnecessary messages about burgers and cars. But it didn't disturb my sleep. In fact I slept so well that I woke at my usual 4.45 completely refreshed and wanting to get up! As I waited til 7 I watched the sky changing through an array of blues from very dark to pale blue. The darker blues looked amazing above the black roof tops of the chimneyed pub.

Today 6 of us we will be in the Arcade in the morning and the afternoon wearing tee shirts saying Here to Listen and on the back will be the question 'How has migration affected you?' IKEA have lent us a sofa for those who want to sit down.

Another day begins

1st nov - first night - peace festival begins

I have survived my first night in New Union Street, alongside Tim. Very mild night, lots of part goers out til very late as it was Halloween but managed to sleep pretty well. You know you are vulnerable and keep a certain alertness when you hear someone coming your way, especially when you realise they are drunk, but managed to sleep again when they had passed.

I am sleeping out through choice though which makes the experience very different from if I had nowhere to go - and I had warm clothes and warm sleeping bag. The big difference is that I did not feel excluded from society. Peace involves inclusion. As the Peace Festival begins it is good to think about how to make our city more inclusive - where no-one is left outside.

And thinking globally about peace - war causes homelessness big time. Some people spend all their lives in refugee camps. Bombs destroy the fabric of houses but other tools of war like rape force women to leave their communities and their home. People sometimes flee their homes through fear.

Some of those people are now in Coventry and might again find themselves homeless. 70% who come here in search of sanctuary are refused asylum and told to go back home. Most of them are too frightened to return and often their country refuses to take them. They become destitute.

I have just finished speaking with Tecle who is in Campsfield House near Oxford. At least he has a roof over his head but he is in a removal centre and has been for 8 months. They are like prisons except you are allowed to make phone calls.He had been refused asylum and was trying to escape to the Netherlands to be with his wife and daughter and got caught. They never send people back to Eritrea because the Government refuses to recognise anyone as Eritrean. He has no idea how long they will keep him in detention.

When I got back this morning I helped Alan finish the big detention cage we are having in Shelton Square on Tuesday - 11.00 - 2.30 Come down to see it and find out more about detention. The event is called 'Liable to be detained' as that is what every asylum seeker has on their papers to remind them that they can be detained at any time.

On the first day of the Peace Festival I am thinking about war and about refugees and about other homeless people in Coventry who are excluded from society for a variety of reasons.

There can be no real peace while people are homeless.

If you want to do something about homelessness come to the meeting in the Friends Meeting House in Hill Street, Coventry at 9am at the end of this 14 day sleep out.