Songul Yukesoy washes dishes thoroughly, lathering plates and cutlery before rinsing bubbles and laying everything out to dry. An unremarkable scene, except that she is outside, sitting in the shadow of her ruined house.. It's tilted at a terrible angle, the window frames are hanging down, and there's a large piece of rusty iron roof in the garden, according to a BBC report..

[see_also ids\u003d"

A month after devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, survivors face an uncertain future. One of the biggest challenges is finding a safe place to live.. At least 1.5 million people are now homeless and it is unclear how long it will take to find them proper shelter..

Meanwhile, Turkish disaster agency Afad reports that nearly two million people have fled the quake area.. Some of them live with friends or loved ones somewhere in the country. Flights and trains from the region are free for those who want to leave.

But in Samandag, off the Mediterranean coast, Songul clearly understands that she and her family are not going anywhere.. " Whatever comes next - even if the house falls - we will stay here. This is our home, our nest. Everything we have is here. We're not going to go"

Precious pieces of furniture were carefully pulled out of the house and put outside. On a polished wooden table - a holiday souvenir - a picture of shells from the Turkish resort of Kusadasi. There is a bowl of fruit, white mold is crawling over a large orange. Things that look normal indoors seem strange and out of place when they are outdoors.. Now the whole family lives in three tents a few steps from the destroyed house.. There they sleep and share food cooked on a small derivative of the oven.. There is no proper toilet although they found one from the bathroom and are trying to flush it down to a makeshift wooden shed. They even created a small shower area. But it's all very simple, and the lack of space and privacy is obvious.. These tents are cramped and crowded.

[see_also ids\u003d"

It was a heavy moon for Songul. Seventeen of their relatives died during the earthquake. Her sister Tulay is officially missing.. " " We are waiting. We can't begin to mourn. We can't even find her."

Shwarin Songul Hussemettin and 11-year-old nephew Lozan died when their apartment building in Iskenderun collapsed around them while they were sleeping. We visited what was left of their house, a sprawling pile of twisted rubbish.. Neighbors said that three apartment buildings fell.

[see_also ids\u003d"

“We brought Lozan's body here,” Songul says quietly.. “We took him from the morgue and buried him not far from us in Samandag. Khusemettin was buried in the cemetery of the anonymous, we found his name"

A shot of a smiling family. from Tulay's still active Facebook profile - they are hugging each other and their faces are close. Lozan holds the red ball tightly.

The homelessness crisis caused by the earthquake is so acute because of the real lack of safe places. Over 160,000 structures have fallen or been badly damaged. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimates that at least 1.5 million people are still in the earthquake zone, but they have nowhere to live. It is difficult to determine the real figure, and it could be much higher.. Training booths arrive, but too slowly. Tents appeared everywhere, from scattered new camps to isolated ones scattered among the rubble.. Still not enough. News that the Turkish Red Crescent sold some of its taxpayer-funded stock of tents to a charity - albeit at cost - sparked disappointment and anger.

[see_also ids\u003d"

In some cities people still live in public buildings.

In Adana, I met families sleeping on blankets and mattresses scattered on the volleyball court.. In the port city of Iskenderun, they settled on two trains parked at the railway station.. Seats have become beds, luggage racks are filled with personal belongings, and staff struggle to keep things clean and tidy.. Tears fill one girl's eyes as she hugs a pillow instead of a teddy bear. This is not a house.

Songul children have a hard time too. Toys and games are stuck in dangerous houses, but there is no school. “They are bored, they have nothing to do. They just sit. They play with their phones and then go to bed early when the charge runs out.”.

When the night comes it gets even harder. There is no electricity in Samandag now. Songul draped colorful solar lanterns on her white tent just above the bold UNHCR logo. Homeless in their own country, they're not refugees, but they still lost everything.

[see_also ids\u003d"

“I put lamps here so they could be seen,” Songul explains..

" Lack of electricity is a big problem. The fear is too great, and all night we feel tremors, so it's hard for us to sleep" Starting to cry, she wipes her tears with her hand. “We are free people, we are used to freedom, independence, everyone lives in their own homes,” adds her husband Savas. “But now we are three families, we eat in the same tent, we live and sit in the same tent”.

" And there's always fear. Our homes are destroyed, what's next? We just don't know"