Life has been a bumpy ride for Andrea (not her real name), but after getting support from Greater Manchester Housing First, she’s finally on a steady footing.
Andrea’s early life was unstable to say the least. She spent some of her formative years sleeping rough in Manchester to escape a chaotic home life.
This quickly led her into drugs and a life of crime, and a number of prison sentences followed – the longest being for a violent robbery. While inside, she discovered she was pregnant with her first child.
This pattern repeated until September 2019 when she met her Housing First support worker. At the time, Andrea was living at a hostel.
The pair soon bonded and the support worker was able to get a property offer for Andrea and she was able to get the home that she wanted, in the area that she wanted. With ongoing support, Andrea is gradually putting her life back together.
She’s been able to get a methadone prescription to help her off drugs and is claiming all the benefits she’s entitled to so she can support her children, who are now living with her full-time.
Andrea is now looking forward to raising her children and is incredibly grateful for the ongoing help and support.
“All I want to do is support my children and stop them going through the things I did,” says Andrea. “Housing First has supported me in ways nobody else has. They’ve been with me every step of the way, through good times and bad. I can’t say enough good things about them.
“It doesn’t bear thinking about what would have become of me and my family if Housing First hadn’t been there for me. I just want to bring up my children the best way I can and give them a good future.”
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