I became homeless. It can happen to anyone. And it does happen to
anyone. Don't ever think I'm safe, it's not going to happen
to me. It could. It can just take one thing. It may take an
accumulation of things, but it does and it can happen to
everyone. I'm Scott, I'm 56 years old, and I'm from
Mullumbimby.
Definitely homelessness can happen to anyone. I'm sitting
here telling my story of being homeless.
I've been a teacher. I've been a principal. I was also the state
manager of an IT training company earning $50 an hour
working 40 hours in a week. In May, of 2013, I was diagnosed
with Burkitt lymphoma, a very aggressive form of cancer. I
spent six months in St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, fighting
that, and obviously very successfully. Coming back,
after my hospitalisation, I did my recovery by myself, with very
little help from anybody. In 2015, I started to venture out
into the world again. I was living with a friend in
Brunswick Heads and the situation there became extremely
difficult and... very late one night... I found myself homeless
and on the streets, myself and my dog in my car. I gave him the
back and on the back seat were whatever belongings I could get
into my car and I slept in the front seat.
I can't say I slept because I was constantly on the lookout
for somebody coming along to tell me to move on, or to do
whatever.
It's very scary, very scary. And it's not something that you do
because you want to.
You have no other choice.
My world collapsed. Sorry.
At that time... because you suddenly have nowhere to go, you
have no security, you don't know what you're going to do, where
you're going to be. Your mind just... your mind can't focus on
anything. You're just overwhelmed by how am I going to
care for my dog? How am I going to care for myself? How am I
going to get a good night's sleep? Where am I going to get
my food from? All of these things come into play.
The one thing I've learned from this experience... don't ever
give up.
Never give up.
Because people are there to help. It can be difficult, and
it can be daunting. But once you get there, and once you get that
help, and once you get into some form of safe, secure, long-term
accommodation your world changes.