Dilawar (people referred to by only their first name have requested anonymity) did not know where to sit. His cramped living room, backed up against a kitchenette, was cluttered with a sofa, a desk, a drying rack, and boxes filled with food. He eventually found a seat near a Velux window that let in only a thin sliver of light. "I have lived here for seven years with my wife and my 8-year-old son," said the 54-year-old man, whose family is originally from Bangladesh. His son sleeps in a closet-sized bedroom, its blind covered in mold. The oven has not worked for a year. The corridor, filled with rubbish, smells of cannabis. "There are often drug dealers downstairs," he continued. "The police come regularly."

This apartment is in an office building converted to housing, in an industrial area on the edge of Harlow, a city in Essex with around 94,000 residents, located an hour from London. "I grew up in Tower Hamlets, then lived with one of my brothers in Redbridge [both London neighborhoods], but when my son was born, there was no longer enough space for us to stay," he said.

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