Tom: ‘I am educated, well-spoken and not an addict’

My story of homelessness is not one you usually hear. I am not the type of person you’d expect to sleep rough. I am educated, well-spoken and was not an addict. People didn’t believe a guy like me could end up with nothing: no friends or family for support.

I decided to fake a mental illness to have somewhere warm to stay Tom

It all started after my father died 10 years ago. I had been working abroad in commercial advertising but came home to bury him. Then I made the decision to move back to London, but I ended up losing contact with a lot of people I once knew. I was also estranged from my family, so I didn’t know a soul in the city. Over the next few months I used up all my money, failed to get a job and – because I’d been away for a while – struggled to reintegrate into the social welfare system.

I ended up on the streets. There are very few shelters where you can walk in without ID and get help. I had my passport but didn’t know my national insurance number or my address (I didn’t have one) so I couldn’t get the necessary documentation.

All Tom’s possessions were stolen except this silver book mark, attached to an X-ray of his shoulder, which was broken while he slept rough.

When I first started sleeping rough I didn’t know what I was doing and ended up in hospital with pneumonia. When I recovered, the social welfare person at the hospital told me – once again – they could not help. So I found myself back on the streets.

At the beginning of a particularly harsh winter I came up with an ingenious idea – to fake a mental illness to have somewhere warm to stay. I walked into a fire station and behaved as if I was having a psychotic episode, pretending not to know where I was. I was admitted to hospital and eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and being marginally bipolar (which was partially true and partially made up on my part). But because I was not a danger to myself they discharged me.

At this point I was so desperate I swallowed some pills and was found by the police in Hyde Park the next day. I was back in hospital and told I needed immediate surgery (the pills had ruptured ulcers in my stomach). The nurse arrived and asked for my address. I told her I didn’t have one. Next of kin? None. A friend? None. There was nobody to contact.

This was when things finally changed for me. In hospital I met someone visiting a relative who offered me help. Then, a month later I ran into the same guy in Hyde Park. He once again told me to stay with him, but I had become very suspicious of people.

Finally, after much persistence on his part, I agreed. He had a spare room and said he’d help me get paperwork. He even helped me open a bank account. I started to make my way back into the world. I even got a job.

I will never forget my time on the streets. I spent my life trying to achieve my dreams. Then, one day everything was gone and I couldn’t get it back. I did nothing wrong, but there was no room for me in the inn and I was on my own.

Kate, 24: ‘I’m homeless but get on well with my mum’

The reason I am homeless is complex: people would class it as a “relationship breakdown” but I get on really well with my mum. The only problems we’ve had have been caused by my autism, which has only recently been diagnosed. Before either of us knew about my condition some of my behaviour – linked to my autism – left my mum in severe financial difficulties. I don’t want to go into too much detail about what happened specifically, but my autism means I often struggle to understand the social rules of the world around me.

‘My autism also makes things a hundred times harder for me.’ Photograph: Picasa

I felt awful and couldn’t really understand why my actions had caused so much pain. My mum and I understandably needed time and space; she wanted to understand, learn about and gain support for my autism, and independence is also something social services have always wanted me to consider. That’s why last summer I filled in my application to try to find alternative accommodation through the council.



I have been living in emergency accommodation in Brighton ever since, at a place that is terrible. Daily challenges include having no heating and living in mouldy and damp conditions. My autism also makes things a hundred times harder for me: the noise, the drug-dealing and screaming children at night mean I barely sleep any more. I also have obsessive compulsive disorder, which mainly manifests in a contamination phobia. I cannot eat or drink where I live and I only get hot food when I see my mum. You might think I should just go back home, but change is very unsettling for autistic people and the thought of this fills me with anxiety. I worry it might send me into a downward spiral.

Autism causes a multitude of communication and social difficulties. When I get upset it can often come out in the form of anger, and then people won’t interact with me. A student social worker is raising my concerns about the property with my local council; it feels like he and my mum are the only two people fighting for my interests.

Adam, 46: ‘I went from helping the homeless to being homeless’

I was evicted from my southeast London flat in 2014 because I had lost my job. I had been working for a charity I set up two days a week but then it folded and I couldn’t afford my rent. I had been in my house for 12 years, but despite this the council were not particularly helpful in relocating me. They said, “Here is a list of private numbers. We cannot help you because of your age and your gender.” I was a low priority.

I ended up buying a £300 old tin caravan with no heating, electricity or running water and parking near my old home. I had a small camping stove for cooking, but that was about it. Local residents, councils and MPs knew where I was but no one gave me any help in finding better accommodation. They seemed to think that l wasn’t someone they should be supporting as I had a place (even though it was a mess – I ended up putting green tarp over my van because it leaked so much).

Inside Adam’s caravan.

I was in my van for 11 months before the council found me a new place 30 miles out of the capital. My dog helped keep me sane during that time, as did the kindness of strangers. It was the elderly community that really supported me – they would come by the caravan on a daily basis to make sure I was OK and take the dog walking with me.

I was trying to get work at this time but it was hard without a permanent address. This was my first experience of being homeless. Bizarrely I had previously worked for a homeless charity. More should be done for single, male homeless people – those who slip through the net as they don’t have drink or drug dependencies.

All names have been changed

On Thursday the Guardian will be liveblogging the homelessness crisis through the night, following people as they attempt to bed down for the night around the country. If you have suggestions of what we should cover email mark.rice-oxley@theguardian.com



