“You feel you aren’t you any more”
Amy was just 17 when, as she struggled with her own anger issues, she left her home following a series of increasingly noisy arguments with her parents and siblings.
She headed to Sheffield because she believed she at least had family there but the reality was that she was on her own – and on the streets.
“I had nowhere to go and I ended up in a doorway in the middle of town,” she recalls.
“It was horrible – cold all the time and frightening too, but it was at least one of the cleanest doors because it was cleared up every day by the owners. I’d come back as soon as the shops shut and settle in again for another night because that’s all you can do, just put your head down and get on with it.
“I was out shoplifting every day because I didn’t have any money and I had to live.
“But the worse thing was the way people looked at you as they passed you and they’d make comments too, say really nasty things – you don’t feel you are anyone any more.”
Things appeared to be improving when she was approached by a woman who said she had been homeless herself and knew of a squat where Amy could stay.
“At least I was inside and there was a bed for me and curtains but there were drugs too and I did do some of that until I forced myself to stop, just stayed in bed until it was out of my system, which was hard but I knew I had to do it.” Amy says.
“The life I had wasn’t a life to be living but it was the only life I had and there didn’t seem to be any way out.”
Amy is one of the 110,000 young people who find themselves homeless every single year in the UK. She wasn’t there through choice, and she had the will to fight the situation.
Read the next part of Amy’s story where she started the long process of turning her life around here.
We’d like to thank everyone whose support makes sure we’re there for Amy and so many other young people who need us. We realise this is a difficult time for everyone, but if you have been moved by Amy’s story and have the capacity to help us make a difference, please consider supporting our campaign by setting up a regular gift.
