Emmanuel House’s Winter Shelter provides short-term emergency accommodation for people who find themselves homeless in Nottingham

Andrei* came to England from Romania in 2022. His identification documents had been stolen and he had No Recourse To Public Funds, which meant he wasn’t able to claim benefits and wasn’t able to legally work in the UK. He was living in private-rented accommodation but when his landlord sold the house, Andrei was evicted. He had been rough sleeping in Nottingham for three months when the Street Outreach Team referred him to the Winter Shelter.

He couldn’t speak English, but he was able to communicate with some of the other people staying in the shelter. We also used a telephone translation service in order to converse with him. Over Christmas, the translation service enabled Andrei to tell us he was having severe liver pain, so we arranged for hospital and GP appointments for him.

Andrei was very scared and wanted to return home to Romania, so we supported him to reconnect with his sister in Romania. We applied to a local fund for financial support towards his travel and we bought him train fare and a flight back to Romania.

We also got specialist advice from a local organisation about the documents required for him to travel home. After three months staying at the Winter Shelter, Andrei returned home where he hoped he would reconnect with his family. He was very emotional when he left and thanked everyone for their help.