“There’s help out there, but it’s knowing where to go. The 999 Club saved my life.”
Michael had been earning a good living as a musician before the pandemic struck. When lockdown began, like so many in the entertainment field, Michael saw his livelihood dry up overnight. He was living with his girlfriend, but their relationship sadly ended, and just like that Michael had nowhere to live and no way to make a living. He was homeless.
He had a period of sleeping rough. Isolated and fearful, Michael was at a low ebb. His mental health really began to suffer.
When Michael was told about the 999 Club, it was here that things finally began to turn around for him.
Michael first walked through our doors of our day centre – The Gateway – last November, where the first person he met was Kenny, one of our key workers at the charity. “Kenny treated me like a human being,” he remembers. “Sleeping rough, people would look at you as though they were judging. People assume things of you.”
It made a huge difference to Michael to have access to a few of the essentials he had been missing. “I was able to get warm, have a hot drink, have a wash, clean my teeth – things I hadn’t been able to do for a while as everything was closed because of the Covid lockdown.”
But the help we gave Michael went well beyond that. He spoke to The Gateway manager, about his situation, who said he’d call Michael as soon as he’d found some potential flats to view. Minutes after Michael had left, his phone rang as – they had found three properties to view the very next day.
One week later, just as the bitter winter weather was really ramping up, Michael moved into his own place. Safety and warmth were his once more. For Michael, the 999 Club’s impact was immense. “There’s help out there, but it’s knowing where to go. The 999 Club saved my life.”