Steven's story"Quite a whole heap of things happened at once - my relationship broke down, that involved my accommodation, and then my work dried up. I went from earning a very comfortable income, as far as I knew my relationship was fine. Then one thing upsets you and knocks your confidence and then it makes you less able to deal with the next crisis that comes up."
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In England there are around 4.5 million people on the council housing waiting list.
| Derek's story"I was homeless for about three years, but most of that I was in prison anyway so, it was prison, on the road, prison, on the road, prison. I become used to going to prison. When the judge said, "I'm gonna give you six month custodial", I used to think, "can you give me some more, cos it's Christmas soon, and it's gonna be cold"."
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For every 1 known rough sleeper, there are around 100 people in hostels, up to 600 adults living in 'concealed' households and upwards of 1,100 households in overcrowded accommodation.
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"You get to a point where you're desperate. I've got a lot of drive when I'm ready but at the beginning of this, I was on my knees. I was living in a basement. I was barely eating. There was no real money. I honestly believe if you're an individual who has gone through some of the stuff I have, if you're not really a strong individual or you've got good family or something like Homelink isn't about, you're gonna go and do some stupid stuff."
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