Natalie’s story

Natalie spent years surviving homelessness and substance use, moving between hostels, temporary accommodation and the streets. Life was unpredictable, often dangerous, and trusting support services felt impossible.

But when she began working with Single Homeless Project, something changed. With patient support and a place to rebuild her life, Natalie slowly began to believe in herself again.

Now, nearly two years into recovery, she has a home she loves, is reconnecting with family, and is discovering a future she once thought was out of reach.

“For a long time, I didn’t like myself,” Natalie says. “Now I can say I like who I am. And that feels amazing.”

At 46, Natalie lives in East London in a home she’s proud of. Her flat is warm and welcoming, filled with candles, flowers and the everyday things that make it feel like hers.

“I wake up happy now,” she says. “I’m paying my bills, going to my appointments, getting on with life. I’m living like a normal person.”

But for many years, life looked very different.

Growing up and leaving home

Natalie moved to Ilford when she was eight. School wasn’t easy for her, and she often felt she didn’t fit the expectations around her. When she was 15, tensions at home led her to leave for the first time. She and a friend rented a tiny flat together during the summer holidays.

“It sounds mad now,” she laughs. “We thought £60 a month rent was expensive.”

Eventually, their families persuaded them to return home, but things didn’t settle down for long. Natalie soon found herself trying to find her own way in the world.

As a teenager, Natalie moved between hostels and temporary accommodation. When she was 18, she met someone in a hostel who offered her something to help with severe dental pain. It was heroin. 

“After a week, I thought I had the flu,” she says. “I hadn’t realised what I was taking. I didn’t realise I was withdrawing.”

The addiction quickly took hold.

“I didn’t go through the stages people sometimes do. I went straight from smoking some cannabis to injecting heroin. I didn’t understand what I was getting into.”

Over time, heroin began to shape every part of her life.

Life on the streets

Natalie experienced long periods of homelessness over the years, including time sleeping rough. Life on the streets meant constantly finding ways to survive.

“You learn where you can sleep. You learn where you can go. People show you the places – a doorway, a bin shed, somewhere hidden,” she says.

To get by, Natalie hustled. She found ways to make money and survive day to day, sometimes in ways she isn’t proud of now.

“I’ve done things I look back on and think, how could I have done that?” she says. “I’ve hurt people’s pockets. I’ve taken money from people who needed it.”

But she also knows how hard she fought just to get through each day.

“The amount of running around I did trying to get money for gear – it was more than a full-time job,” she says. “People don’t realise how much energy it takes just to survive out there.”

Looking back, Natalie sees that the same determination that helped her survive is now helping her build something different.

One Christmas Eve stands out clearly in Natalie’s memory. By this stage, Natalie had a daughter, and she was still very young. Natalie’s mother had been looking after her. Natalie had been missing from home for months when she phoned her mum in the early hours of the morning.

“I thought she’d be up because we always went to midnight mass,” Natalie says. “But she’d been asleep.”

Her mum immediately asked where she was and offered to come and get her. Natalie went home and spent Christmas with her family and her daughter.

“I had everything I needed for a couple of days,” she says. “I was warm, I was with my baby and my mum.”

But addiction still had a grip on her life.

“As soon as I ran out of drugs, I wanted to leave again,” she says.

Looking back now, Natalie sees that Christmas differently.

“At the time I didn’t think about it,” she says. “But now I realise what I had.”

How dangerous the streets can be

Natalie is clear about how dangerous street homelessness can be, especially for women. One night, while sleeping in a park, she was attacked by two men.

“I can still remember the smell of his breath,” she says quietly.

She believes the situation could have ended very differently if someone nearby hadn’t intervened.

Shortly afterwards, an outreach worker who had been speaking to her regularly stepped in to help. They encouraged Natalie to visit a temporary homelessness hub that had opened locally and supported her to get there.

It was a small moment of support, but it mattered.

Being heard

Natalie eventually began working with our services. At first, she didn’t fully engage. After years of instability, she had learned to rely only on herself and struggled to trust services.

But something felt different this time.

That consistency and action slowly began to rebuild something Natalie had lost over the years: confidence.

As she began engaging with support, Natalie describes the experience as suddenly waking up after years lost in addiction.

“I felt like I’d been in the twilight zone for 20 years,” she says. “Like I’d woken up as a grown woman but with a child’s brain and everything was raw and real.”

Things many people take for granted felt overwhelming at first. Making appointments, managing responsibilities and facing emotions without substances were all things she had to learn from scratch. But with steady support and encouragement, she slowly began to build her confidence again.

“I started thinking, if my supporter workers can do this, maybe I can do my part too,” she says.

“I could make my appointments. I could sort things out.”

Rebuilding belief

With support from Single Homeless Project, Natalie began engaging with services she had struggled with in the past.

She connected with drug recovery support and started working towards stopping heroin use. She also began addressing other parts of her life that had been neglected for years, from health appointments to rebuilding relationships.

Recovery hasn’t been a straight line.

“There have been slips,” she says honestly. “But the difference now is I deal with it. I don’t disappear.”

The energy and determined spirit that once helped her on the streets is now helping her move forward.

A place to call home

Today, Natalie has a home of her own. She proudly calls it her “little palace”. She has reconnected with her brother, and her flat has become a place where family visits – something she once never imagined.

“My niece and nephews come round. My brother, cousins, aunts and uncles come round. My daughter comes round,” she says.

“Before, I didn’t have the space for that. I didn’t have the life for that.”

She also started studying again and hopes to return to a foundation course in business management. And she’s thinking about volunteering, after spending time talking to elderly patients during a long hospital stay.

“I want to give back,” she says. “Helping people makes me feel good.”

Looking ahead

Natalie knows she can’t change the past. But she believes she can choose who she is now.

“I’m trying to be the person I want to be,” she says.

“For a long time, I didn’t like myself. Now I can say I like who I am. And that feels amazing.”

Natalie’s story is a reminder that homelessness is never just one thing. Behind every experience is a complex life shaped by trauma, relationships, health and circumstance.

Through our Housing First approach, we start with what everyone needs most: a safe place to call home. By taking the time to listen, build trust, and work alongside people at their own pace, our teams support people like Natalie in rebuilding their confidence and taking the next steps towards a future they once thought was out of reach.