I visited Salvador Dali’s home in Northern Spain in early autumn.

It is open to the public. It is a very special place. Actually it’s amazing. He didn’t create a museum. This is where he lived and it therefore has its own personality and character.

There is a big difference between a house and a home.

A house is bricks and mortar.

A home is so much more than this. What can you smell – a chicken being cooked, a scented candle, lingering shower gel, boot polish, smelly socks?

What can you hear? Raised voices, children laughing, a baby crying, football on the television, the latest music from a CD player?

What can you see – family photographs, a bright red painting, patterned wall paper, a damaged door, newly cleaned windows?

A home is where children are cuddled, where they laugh and cry and play with their friends so that the walls consume their sounds to create a special atmosphere. A home is about love, isn’t it?

Dali’s home was his home. It wasn’t a house.

There is a major difference between houselessness and homelessness.

Being homeless is profoundly much worse than being without a house. Building more houses is part of the solution to ending homelessness but only a part of this. By allowing homelessness to exist, we are creating untold misery and longer-term damage.