Martin had always worked. He’d lived in his home for seven years and earned good money from his hospitality job. Then came COVID-19. 

“I lost my house, my job – I’ve always been employed, but when you get older, people don’t want to know,” he says.  

‘Home’ became his transit van. The nights, he says, were “really cold. The rain was deafening. You’re waiting for dawn so you can go and sit in a warm environment”. 

Even worse was the judgement he felt from people passing by. “They have no idea what your story is, what you’ve achieved in life, where you’ve been,” Martin says. “They just see you as someone living in a van and not worth very much.” 

Martin had always found it difficult to ask for help. When Wesley Mission brought a box of food and offered assistance to find housing, he says “there was a huge part of me that wanted to say no”. 

Martin continues, “But this little voice just came out of me and said ‘Yeah, actually I would’.” 

Those four words changed everything. Martin now lives in his own home and feels a growing sense of self-worth. Wesley Mission’s team provides a range of support. 

“Wesley [Mission] supported me in taking care of myself,” he says. “It wasn’t a case of relying on Wesley [Mission] to do it all – I was very much involved in the process. That was important because it got me back into life.”