'I grew up in Skerries, Co Dublin, with four brothers and one sister. My troubles started when my marriage broke up in my 30s (I'm 47 now). I found it very hard to get anywhere to live.
Every time I got somewhere, something would happen and I would have to move out. I was on long-term sickness benefit after having cancer but when I got better I got myself a job. Things were good for a while but when I lost my job I couldn't find any landlords who would take someone on social welfare. Eventually I found a place. I was only living there a couple of months and the landlord wanted to sell so I had to move. I had nowhere to live and so I was living in my car.
"It made me feel low and dirty - a horrible experience, you wouldn't know who would be coming around the streets. I'd never stay anywhere twice. I was nearly suicidal. I was drinking and taking stress tablets, more tablets than I should have been taking, and one night things got so bad I rang an ambulance.
"For years I was trying to get a place off the council. I said 'what do you want me to do, do you want me to kill myself before I get a place to live?' I asked for help and after that I was put in touch with Sophia Housing. In no time at all they had got me a lovely flat in Loughshinny and I haven't looked back since.
"My Sophia Housing social worker Conor has helped me through everything. He became more like a brother to me than a social worker. I had a kind of transition period where he would visit me every week, and after a year when Conor thought I was able to stand on my own two feet, I started paying rent to the council. I get my social welfare in the post office and the rent comes out of that, then I go and do my shopping, and I am never late with my bills.
"I can't get over how quick they got me a place. They were so nice, so kind. I'm a lot happier in myself. I still take stress tablets but I've a lovely home, I appreciate what I have and I keep it immaculate. I am very, very proud of what I have. I have come a long way in just a year and a bit. You have no idea what that place means to me - I keep her like a new pin, I'm worse than any woman."
