Melanie’s Story.

Please be aware that this story covers domestic abuse.

Melanie* starts by saying that ‘you wouldn’t have thought this would happen. I was head girl at school!’ – it’s a stark reality that homelessness can happen to anybody.

First encountering homelessness after a breakdown in her relationship with her mum, Melanie started sofa surfing. After much turbulence, she eventually found a flat – but her life was made even more complicated by a series of unexpected events.

The person living there previously owed money to other drug users, to avoid carrying the debt over she started to hang out with the wrong crowd. She met her partner, who over the years turned out to be abusive – as well as his mother who was addicted to heroin.

Living with her partner and his mother, they would bring people back all the time. Eventually, Melanie ended up joining in, otherwise they were hostile towards her. Melanie became addicted to cocaine. Keen to say, ‘I never did heroin,’ she was ostracised from her own bathroom when the mother would be actively using.

This woman used to shoplift to pay for her addiction and encouraged Melanie to do the same – funding her cocaine habits, but primarily her dinners. This, however, was disrupted by her partner who would spend the money and never fulfil his promise of paying her back.

She tells us of the time she called her mum crying down the phone, of the time the music got too much, of the time she had a glass broken over her head. Ultimately it became routine:

She confesses most of the drug misuse had started before then – also fuelled by another domestic abuse incident. A few years prior, at 19, she had a much older partner who tricked her into moving in with him as a stepmother to his children. Not telling her he had children, because he thought she would leave him, he waited until the day before Melanie moved in to tell her. She recalls how she was always late for work and stopped eating because of his emotional abuse. The only glimmer of hope was that she ‘ended up being mum to the kids.’

Working through her own life events, Melanie started seeing a counsellor but felt like she couldn’t truly open up. That was when she met Jo, her P3 Link Worker, and things began to change:

When she found P3, she was able to talk to them about her previous issues with drug misuse and unravel the mental and physical impact of the past.

Once back on her feet, Melanie started to volunteer at peer support meetings, helping other survivors of domestic abuse. Now studying psychology at university, she is working part-time at an Indian restaurant where she jokes, ‘I’ve put on four stone – which I needed!’

Melanie is steadfast: “If I hadn’t moved away, I’d be dead now. I always say to other people don’t be afraid to talk. You can only get help if you do!” She believes that her degree will open a lot of opportunities for her – especially domestic abuse support services for women.

How we ended her interview: “I really can’t wait for the future.”