Dave’s Story
This is Dave’s story, in his own words.
“I was working for an engineering company in Lancing and I was lodging with someone in Worthing. In March 2019, I was made redundant and around the same time, the lady I was lodging with had gone into hospital and she wasn’t coming out. It was a rental flat, so she was having to give it up, which meant I was out as well.
I had a lot of stuff going on around that time as well, it just became too much for me. I ended up in hospital due to mental health. I spent 7 weeks there. When they discharged me, the council put me up in temporary accommodation at a hotel. I was in there for 3 and a half months. The council then referred me to Turning Tides. I got a call from Turning Tides asking if I would like to look around the property at Manor Road, I was happy with it and moved in within a few weeks. I was there a few months and then moved into Turning Tides Move-On housing. My key worker helped me sign up for the housing register so I could start bidding on my own housing. I was quite low maintenance, even though Turning Tides offer other support, the hospital helped me with my mental health.
Really all I needed was a roof over my head and Turning Tides gave me that.
At Move-On you share the kitchen and have your own room. At the property, I had the smallest room, but it had a garden! It was like a studio flat. I spent a year and a half there. That’s when I really landed on my feet. I was bidding for a flat and a new block of flats had just been built; I bid and got it! You can’t have high expectations when bidding for social housing, but I got lucky. I got an email from the council saying I was on the shortlist. I didn’t know if the shortlist was 2 people or 100 people. I spoke to Brendon at Turning Tides to see if he could find out how many people, he called the council and found out I was number 1! I could not believe it.
When I went to view my new flat and I walked in, my first words were “Wow, this hallway is as big as where I am living now!” I could have just moved into the hallway! It was just incredible. It was weird, because I was so used to being in a tiny room, I had been there a week or two and I had to walk from the lounge to the bedroom and back and I thought, this is a long walk!
The flat I have is with Worthing Homes, I started with a 12 month start up tenancy, after that it becomes a secure tenancy. I can never lose that flat now, unless through fault of my own. When I got the tenancy through, I framed it and put it up on the wall. That is how much it means to me. If I pay the rent, it’s mine forever. It’s given me security. I have now been there four years.
I started volunteering, I loved it so much I applied for a job there and I have been working there 2 and a half years. I now spend my day helping other people with housing. My hallway is so big, I use it as my home office for the odd days I work from home.
For anyone else going through something similar, get help, there is help out there. The hard thing is asking for help, that was always my problem, I never asked for help and if I had earlier, things would have never got as bad as they did. But I landed on my feet at the end of it.
I couldn’t have done it without Turning Tides, having somewhere to live was a major factor and the help I got from the hospital helping me get my head back together.
There are as many reasons people become homeless as there are homeless people. The stereotypical image people have are alcoholics or people on drugs, but they may be in that position due to being homeless. I was lucky I never had to sleep on the streets, but I can see how it leads to it. Nobody wants to be homeless.”