Every night was unbearably cold. Vince would huddle in his crowded tent, which he shared with four other men, beneath the light rail tunnels at Wentworth Park....

“I thought I was going to be on the streets for the rest of my life,” Vince says.

But in a moment, that all shifted. “I was lucky that Wesley Mission came along, and they changed all that for me,” he shares.

Vince will always remember that day. He woke to a commotion in the park. There he met Rob from Wesley Mission, who invited him to stay at Wesley Edward Eagar Centre.

Vince vividly recalls that long walk from Wentworth Park to Wesley Edward Eagar Centre in Surry Hills. “It was raining heavily, and I got to the lodge and I was soaked. It was so good to have a hot shower and a hot meal. I was very grateful.”

While finally safe and comfortable, finding Vince a permanent roof over his head proved to be challenge. Ten years ago, Vince lost contact with his daughter after travelling through a messy divorce. But driven by love for his daughter, Vince invested his divorce settlement into a property, which he put into a Trust under his daughter’s name.

“Years ago, I had a problem with addiction and I think if I’d kept that money, I would’ve blown it,” he shares. “I love my daughter so much and I just wanted to leave something for her.”

While admirable, it meant Vince had nothing left to build a life for himself. And his property investment limited his ability to access housing support. Unable to afford the property’s mortgage payments, he needed to source rental income. But that left Vince without a home. So, he ended up on the streets.

While a unique situation, our team began navigating through Vince’s legal housing issues. And after eight months at Wesley Edward Eagar Centre, Vince was offered a transitional home in Sydney’s inner suburbs.Thanks to your generosity, two years later, we finally found a place Vince can permanently call home.“The last 10 years have been a struggle for me and I didn’t ever think that I’d end up where I am today, but I do have to thank Wesley Mission. Their support and their interaction with me and helping me with housing, I couldn’t have done that by myself,” Vince says.

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Zehra had always lived in central Sydney, and when she was just 18 she married a man who turned out to be extremely violent. Too ashamed to return to her parents, and with nowhere else to turn, she stayed in the marriage and had two children....

Zehra, former resident of Wesley Edward Eagar Centre, tried to approach her doctor about the violence she was suffering, but was only prescribed valium to calm her nerves. “The valium really blew me away emotionally,” she remembers.

After years of violent abuse, Zehra left her husband and took her two sons with her.

“I just had to do it on my own, I had no family support.”

Things temporarily improved, but she had to work 18 hour days to support her children and started using speed to keep up – the start of an addiction that would last for years. In a cruel coincidence, her addiction eventually pushed her children, the reason she took the drugs to begin with, out of her life. Broke and alone, she had no one to turn to and nowhere to go. Zehra moved into a refuge in Haymarket, but was still at risk of theft and assault. She had a bed and roof but was far from safe.

Battered by years of abuse and the shame she felt from being homeless, it was only when Zehra came to live at Wesley Edward Eagar Centre in Surry Hills that she began to see that life could get better. Zehra finally feels she has a safe place to live while she gets back on her feet.

“One day, when I am back on track, I will be able to look my sons in the eye again and tell them I did everything I could for them.”

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