Redundant then out on the streets

Huddling in a doorway, I pulled the blanket tighter around my body. Sleeping rough on the streets of Birmingham, I’d had abuse hurled at me from passers-by, been hit and spat at. It was terrifying and humiliating.

Just a few months previously, I’d been financially secure, but that was before redundancy sent my life spiralling out of control, leading to homelessness.

I’d been working full-time as an office administrator for a small waste oil company for 10 years when I was made redundant in March 2018, aged 29. When waste oil