When I was 15, I left home, but it had never really felt like home. There were always screaming matches and arguments. I started living in a tent on the banks of a canal in the Black Country. I would occasionally go home for a bath and a meal, or if the weather was really bad. My parents didn’t appear to miss me. This hurt for a long time.
When I was 17, I went to live in a homeless hostel. It was full of drugs and violence, but that didn’t bother me. I wasn’t interested in drugs and grew up fighting on our estate. I shared a unit in the hostel with a guy called Jason. Jason and I would collect our dole together and go out playing pool and drinking. We felt like we were living the high life. We were just teenagers, but we felt grown up, with our own money and our own “home”.
Soon after, I was given a one-bedroom flat, but I didn’t know anything about managing my own place. I didn’t pay the bills and ended up homeless again. After this, I hit the road and lived a nomadic lifestyle. I befriended people in bands and travelled the country, then Europe, with them, sometimes working as a roadie, cash in hand. I would crash at friends’ and girlfriends’ houses on the floor or the sofa.
Eventually, I managed to get work with a zoo in the Canary Islands. I earned more money than ever before and, fortunately, what I spent it on saved my life. For a long time, I was teetering on the edge. I never took drugs or abused alcohol, but that lifestyle was always close. I had no children, no wife and no responsibilities: I could easily have gone off the rails.
Instead, I spent the money on a rusty old narrowboat, which has since been renovated into a nice home. Now, I earn a living as a freelance content developer. I have known for a long time that I wouldn’t be able to hack the rat race, the nine to five, 2.4 children and a mortgage. The narrowboat suits me. I can live where I want and I finally feel settled. I live simply, with my partner and my dog. All I need is a bottle of gas and a few litres of diesel to run the engine; add in a bag of groceries and you could almost call me domesticated.
If you are worried about becoming homeless, contact the housing department of your local authority to fill in a homeless application. You can use the gov.uk website to find your local council
For more stories of life after homelessness, read Guardian Cities’ the empty doorway series
Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, catch up on our best stories or sign up for our weekly newsletter
