By Simon Oxton
Nora couldn’t help but weep as she remembered her experience with homelessness, a time marked by rough sleeping and uncertainty.
“It’s not a good feeling. It’s very terrible. You’re very vulnerable,” she said of her time on the streets. “You feel like you may die at any moment.”
Nora was working in London as a cleaner and paying to stay with a friend, but after a disagreement about money, her friend “threw her stuff outside” in an “ugly” disagreement. She tried to stay with friends, but after she couldn’t find anywhere to go, Nora was left to face life on the streets for a year, rough sleeping in places like Barking, Dagenham and Merton.
She remembers the bitterly cold nights as she slept in Raynes Park, how each night made her feel like she was losing herself: “It’s terrible. You’re not yourself no more. But I felt so bad when the wind came. There’s nowhere to hide.”
Through a friend’s Google search efforts, Nora found Glassdoor Homeless Charity and visited one of their day centres. The representatives at Glassdoor “treated her well and were very kind” then referred her to HOPE worldwide UK’s Two Step programme. HOPE worldwide UK found her a flat in Bexley in September 2023, where she currently resides.
“When I made contact with HOPE worldwide UK, it was a dream come true. I was shedding tears, just like a baby! Giving me shelter to sleep was too much for me.
“They gave me a second chance. You mean you have a place where you can put your head? You sleep, you wake up and you make a meal. You feel like starting up again. I can’t express my gratitude.”
Now that she no longer worries about where she will stay, she likes to spend her time writing, frequenting the local library, and dreaming of working for a government organisation — like the Houses of Parliament – as a civil servant.
But she will never forget the importance of having a place to call “home”, a word that to her means being free from the “humiliation” she endured whilst experiencing homelessness.
When she’s not writing, Nora likes to read The Metro.
“Maybe cos’ I get it for free,” she said with a smile.
