“We are the sum of our stories, of our friendships and our love affairs and our families.”

“Home is not just four walls or even four rooms. It is not just a roof over your head so the rain can’t get in, however vital one of those may be; however much of a basic human right one of those happens to be.

“It is not just a kitchen and a bathroom and a bed, though they are all a part of it. The word ‘home’ describes something else. It describes somewhere that you belong, because everybody needs one of those. It’s a place where you are wanted, and where you are missed by others when you are not there, even if they do not live with you. It is the start point of your story, because all of us have one, a narrative which helps define our place in this complex, dizzying world.

“Homelessness doesn’t merely describe the absence of a secure room with a bed. It doesn’t only happen because someone couldn’t make the rent of the mortgage. It describes a missing human element too: homelessness happens to the person who couldn’t make the rent but who also had no on to catch them when they fell, no one emotionally invested enough to make sure the very worst things didn’t happen. We are the sum of our stories, of our friendships and our love affairs and our families. Home is where somebody else gives a damn about us. Because without an ‘us’ we are nothing.”

• Jay Rayner, writer, broadcaster, good egg.