Joanne Budd: Why I'm Taking Part In Sleep Easy

13 January 2012

One of the many people already signed up to take part in Sleep Easy this year is Joanne Budd; one of our residents at YMCA Surbiton. Having spent the best part of 6 years homeless, Joanne is keen to raise awareness of the issue that she feels is worse than people realise and believes events like this can help do just that.

This is Joanne’s story:

My BackgroundI was in a violent relationship for three years. The police were called on many occasions but I would never do a written statement and because I wouldn’t, the police and the council couldn’t help me. In the end I decided enough was enough and left.

I stayed with different friends at first, moving from one place to another. My next stop was a night shelter in Crawley but when I got there they had no beds. I was talking to some people in the day centres and a few of them said they stayed in tents nearby. They suggested I stay with them, so I did, eventually buying my own and pitching up next to them and using the day centre every day to wash and get a hot meal.

I spent 15 months in that tent, before getting a space in the day centre for about a month. As well as the bed they helped me work out my next move; to a place called Emmaus in Glasgow. I was drinking a lot at the time and felt moving away from people I knew would help me stop. I did soon after.

That was at the end of February 2008. In December that year I decided to write to my daughter, who’d been adopted, because it was her 18th birthday. We’d been in contact before but not for four years. On New Year’s Eve I got a phone call telling me she had died a few months back.

So I moved back to England, to another Emmaus community in Coventry as it was closer to where my daughter was buried. I started drinking again and just couldn’t settle so moved back to Kingston.

On HomelessnessMy biggest fear is being homeless again. It would kill me if I ended up back in that situation. It just takes so much out of you and you don’t feel like a person, it really knocks you for six, and affects your self-esteem. You’re out there in the cold and you don’t know who you can trust and who you can’t trust. I drank a lot more then just to block everything out.

It’s surprising how many people I saw in the same situation as me. During the day you don’t see people out and everyone moves around but come the night when people have nowhere to go and you see them in doorways and everywhere else it really does open your eyes and make you realise how many people there are affected.

So many in fact, that there’s just not enough hostel space for them all. With night shelters, a lot of them will only let you stay there for one night and then they’ll kick you out in the morning and you have to go back later on the same day and put your name down again.

Before I was in the situation I’ll admit I thought someone who was homeless was someone who slept on a park bench. But because I had my clothes clean and had washed people didn’t realise I was homeless until I told them.

On Sleep EasyI want to make others aware that there are a lot of people out there who need help. I want them to be aware rather than just burying their heads in the sand and just seeing what they want to see. I also want people to see what organisations like the YMCA have done and how they’ve helped me. Even if it makes one person listen and take note then it’s done something good.

Sign up now and join Joanne