In 2007, I was living at Cornerstone, a Housing Co-operative for activists and people who want to change the world. Our house signed up for the Short Stop scheme, hosting destitute asylum seekers for a few nights at a time. Our guests were people of all ages, genders and situations who had risked everything to come over to England and ask for protection. Some people opened up about where they had come from, with harrowing tales of persecution and violence. Others were more re