Case study: Rudi

Rudi, aged 53, is a German citizen who spent most of his life in the USA. After a series of convictions, he was deported to Germany, and came to the UK in 2004.

I've been on drugs and in and out of prison most of my life. I can't even count the number of times I've been arrested. I was deported from the US in 2004 after living there for 42 years - because my passport was German. I immediately went to Frankfurt and started using, prostituting, living on the streets.

Finally, I had a nervous breakdown and checked myself in the mental hospital then went to a men's home. I was getting clean and sober, just trying to pull my pieces together, and then a lot of repressed memories of sexual abuse resurfaced and I relapsed. I decided to come to London because I needed more therapy and could only really do that in my mother-tongue.

I stayed at a shelter 40 days, then I did a little stint in Brixton prison for petty theft, and I got hooked up with a care worker. When I got out, they sent me to a rolling shelter in Marylebone for six weeks and then I lived at a hostel for two years until they got me the flat where I'm at today.

You have people that are homeless, addicts and alcoholics that have suffered trauma, and the statutory agencies are like - we're going to put them here, into gainful employment, right? But they forget that there's an un-housed state of mind - it's just like somebody being in a battle zone for five years - you can't expect that guy to come out and get a job in a month. I think that's what a lot of these service providers fail to understand. They just want to tick the boxes.

I went to AA meetings, went to my therapy, busied myself, trying to stay clean and sober. Moving into my own flat was a huge achievement. Wow to have a place I can call my own. The little amenities that I have are like gifts. God, what a feeling.

Posted on 15 May 2009