Nate’s story
"Being here has given me some time to work out how to be the best dad for my daughter. "
“I first arrived at Your Place after a particularly hard time in my life. I was living with my young family and suddenly my daughter became really ill. Once we had a diagnosis, she was taken to a children’s hospital and it was a really stressful time for me and my partner, and we were both really overwhelmed, which took its toll on our relationship. Even though I had to spend every weekend at the hospital with my child, we decided that it’s best that I leave the family home while we sort things out, so we weren’t distracted from helping our daughter’s recovery.
“It all happened really quickly and I had nowhere to go. With all the stress, I had become really isolated from friends and family, and I found myself with not even anyone to talk to about what was going on. I could do was hope and pray that my daughter’s health improved. Everything felt really hopeless, but when I came to Your Place, I found a community of people who really listen to what you need, and are open to hearing about the issues you’re having. Being here has given me some time to work out how to be the best dad for my daughter.
“When I arrived in the winter, I’d been sleeping rough so being able to have a roof over my head in between hospital stays made things much more comfortable. I’m happy to say that after a year, my daughter received the all-clear. It didn’t feel real. That was my number one priority, so after we had that good news, I could work on myself again.
“Since staying at Your Place I’ve been able to talk to my key worker about my mental health, and where I want to go with my life. Understanding myself outside of my homeless experience has helped me on my way to rebuilding my life. I was encouraged to go back to college, and things are looking good now I have my railway qualification. I’m also looking for security work as that was what I was doing before. I have also been working on repairing relationships in my family; Veronica, my key worker, has been an amazing support system for me while I’ve been here, but I feel like I’m getting my life together now and I’m hopeful about moving forward.”
*Nate is not our resident’s real name. He has requested to use a different name to protect his privacy
