A tenant's story

Martin's background

“My name is Martin Oliver and I am 43 years old. I was born and brought up in South Wales where I attended Grammar school until I was 16, so I had a reasonably good education, but I left school with only 2 CSE’s in Maths and English."

"Upon leaving school at 16 there was not much work in the local area, so I moved to the West Midlands where my father is originally from. I stayed with my paternal grandparents for a short while. Within weeks of this move I was working and had found myself a bed-sit. For the next 18 years I had various jobs around the country from Wolverhampton to Heathrow Airport."

How Martin became homeless

"At the age of 34 I returned to South Wales to set up home with my girlfriend. Unfortunately in April 1999 the relationship with my girlfriend went pear-shaped and I found myself in the situation of being homeless as the house we were living in was hers.”

“This was clearly the lowest part of my life. I had never had any dealings with homelessness in the past so I really did not have a clue about what to do next. At that time there seemed to only be one way out of the predicament…to end it all. After all what was there to live for? I proceeded to get drunk and took a lot of tablets and in my drunken state I tried to get myself arrested, so at least I would have a bed for the night."

"On realising what I had done the police had me taken to hospital. The next day the hospital social worker came to see me and she arranged for me to go and stay in a homeless hostel. This was all new to me and I was terrified.”

“I lived in this hostel for the next three months and what an eye opener it was! There were a couple of other people in the hostel in the same situation, homeless due to the break down of a relationship, but the majority of people there had issues with alcohol or drugs. I knew that I had to rebuild my life and move forward and not to let my life stagnate or go downhill.”

Moving on through a deposit scheme

“I had an excellent key worker at the hostel and she helped me a great deal through this period. After three months in the hostel between my key worker and the Swansea Bond Board a flat was found that I could move into. Brilliant! I thought things could only get better now and I was right. This was my first dealing with the Swansea Bond Board and it was certainly the right move. I am still a client of the Swansea Bond Board after six and a half years.”

“Over the past few months I have been doing a “Profile of Achievement” with the new Smartskills scheme. This has been very useful to me especially the new cooking skills I have learnt. Also through this scheme I am now studying 2 days a week at college doing ‘Foundation in IT.’ I am finding this course beneficial and am hoping it will help me back into work. I have been so grateful to the Swansea Bond Board that I did a 16 kilometre sponsored walk to raise funds for them, and I managed to raise just over £200.”

“What would have happened to me with out the assistance of the Swansea Bond Board in 1999? Who knows?! One thing I do know is that I am settled (still in the same flat) and life is a lot brighter.”