Billy has been addicted to drugs for 35 years - but now he's had enough.
Joe is only 19 - he knows he let his parents down and understands why they kicked him out, but now he wants to prove to them that he's changed.
These two men are at very different stages in their lives but when it comes to drugs they share two key factors - their lives and relationships have been ravaged by them.
Now both men have a final chance to make things better and turn their lives around.
As part of the Liverpool ECHO's ongoing series on the city's drug problem, we spoke to the people who know the grim reality of trying to kick an addiction with so many people in its grip.
Addicted to crack and heroin at just 16 - Billy's story of a lifetime of drug abuse
Billy is 52 and from Huyton, he has been taking heroin and crack cocaine since he was 16 years old.
He said: "I got involved with them just following my friends, I got addicted straight away - that's just my personality, I was only 16.
"It's no life at all, I've been in and out of prison, I've got COPD and had to have a skin graft on my arm because of injecting."
Billy is now a resident at a homeless shelter set up by Lawrence Kenwright, the owner of Liverpool hotel firm Signature Living.
Cotton Street ProjectHe added: "These guys found me on the streets, I'd been there for eight months and my friend brought me here. I've been clean 29 days now."
At Cotton Street, there is a zero tolerance approach to drugs on the premises, so Billy has had to go cold turkey in one of the living pods in the centre.
He said: "It's been hard, because I've not had anything with it - it's just been cold turkey.
"It's terrible - it's a nightmare. The pain you go through, the sweating and the sleepless nights, you go through everything and it lasts for weeks.
"But this has saved me this place, it has kept me busy, allowed me to meet people - and kept my mind off drugs."
The ECHO has been exploring how vulnerable addicts and homeless people are being routinely targeted by drug dealers around Merseyside.
"It's just like going to the shop. It's everywhere"
Billy said hard drugs like heroin and crack have never been difficult to find.
He said: "It is just like going to the shop. It's everywhere.
"You've just got to stay away from the places that you were going and the people that you knew - because they are the influences."
He says the addiction is still in his brain but he feels like he is beating it - and the friendships he has made with others going through similar journeys at Cotton Street have been a big part of that.
He said: "I feel better now, much happier - Lawrence [Kenwright] has said he will get me a job when I'm ready.
"If you come off drugs, you need something to work towards and something to keep you occupied."
And Billy has the ultimate goal that he is working towards.
He explained: "I've given myself six months before I go and see my family - they've always been screaming at me to get off it.
"I want to go over there with flowers and to show them I'm clean - that's what I'm aiming for."
Living in a night shelter and taking crack before he was out of his teens - Joe's fight to get clean
19-year-old Joe is also hoping to reconnect with his family - he knows that his previous behaviours around drugs have left him with a lot of work to do in that respect.
He explained: "I was taking drugs in my parents' house and they had no tolerance for it - they gave me lots of second chances but I kept taking the mick.
"I was in a night shelter and I moved from taking cocaine to crack.
"You don't really have any inhibitions when you are on the streets, you aren't looking after yourself, you don't care as much."
But like Billy, he says he has had a fresh start at Cotton Street and is now 40 days clean.
He said: "It's not a forever home, it's a stepping stone to sorting your life out.
"I might be moving back home with my parents, I want to show them I'm clean.
"It will take a while for them to trust me because of all the chances they have given me, which I have thrown back in their faces - but I hope I can do it."
Cotton Street is managed by Simon Whitter, who was homeless himself and battled alcoholism.
He said: "We have a process for people here - if you come and say 'I've no intentions of getting off the gear', there's no point in you coming here.
"We are not a rehab, we will take anyone that comes in with the attitude of 'I need to get off the gear and I will do'.
"Some people will fall down a lot, but as long as they get back on the horse - we will help them and support them.
"It's dead chilled out here, we never have the police here - everyone gets on really well and it is like a family."
His own experience of life on the streets and the examples offered by those who have successfully moved on from the shelter are key to the process.
Simon said: "Everyone is treated based on the needs they present with.
Four out of five of our staff have been on the streets themselves and either drug addicts or alcoholics.
"And it works. These guys respect you because they know you've been through a rattle, been through a journey - they know it's a personal thing.
"Everyone does it differently, it is a personal journey - Billy pretty much locked himself in the pod for the first six days he was here."
"There's no them and us in here - it is just all of us."
Speaking about Cotton Street, Lawrence Kenwright said: "Here the guests have their own little home, with their own lockable doors to keep their own clothes and belongings - we think they start to feel human again and part of a community.
"And then we have some homeless people who have just moved into their own homes but they come back to see these other guys or they are now doing paid work for us.
"They stand in front of them like a flag in the sand saying, 'if I can do it, if I can get off drugs, you can do it' - there's 10 successes already this year, all of varying levels."
But he says the coming winter months worry him greatly.
"I am concerned, I think there are more people on the streets than ever - and as the city's tourism continues to boom, more are migrating there.
"If they are getting money on the streets it is all too easy for them to turn to drugs."
