A bus in winter
“Sometimes I would sit at the bus stop for most of the day. People would come and go, the world kept moving past me but I would stay still. I would feel so cold.
One week, the Red Cross got me a bus pass. It was winter and the bus was somewhere I could keep warm. It didn't matter where it was going. The bus was one of the few places I felt safe. I knew there was a camera so the driver could stop people from hurting me.
I looked at all the people on the bus and thought, ‘These people have beds, they have homes, light and warmth.’ When you are homeless, you feel like you are nothing.”
Blood in my shoes
“When I had no bus pass, I had to walk long distances to find a night shelter or a church where they gave you a hot meal. There was blood in my shoes. I said to myself, ‘I'm strong’. Now my situation is better but I'm so tired.”
A destitute life
“Life is like a train, it quickly passes. Sometimes you feel that it is too late, like you have missed the train. I lost 10 years to destitution. It felt like I was waiting at the platform. Waiting. Waiting.
Finally, when they gave me my papers, I felt like life had already passed me by. I had lost my youth, my health and my hope.”
My witness
“I used to go to the park all the time when I was homeless, because there no one looks at you. I would go in the day, the night is not safe. I had no friend, so I sat and talked to the trees. They were my witnesses. I told them my story and my dreams.”
My witness (part 2)