Bec and Asa on Drive talked with James Bell, who shared his story and gave insight into his time as a homeless person.

James started from the beginning, prefacing it with a lot of people’s misconceptions.

From Happiness to Hardship

“One of the biggest misconceptions about somebody who’s experiencing homelessness is, you know, oh, they must have had a really rough childhood or something along those lines. And that certainly wasn’t the case for me.”

James grew up in a safe home with great parents. When he was a teenager he fell into a different crowd and started using drugs and alcohol. He quickly became an addict, and he found himself in hardship.

“Before I knew it, I found that I had lost relationships with my family, with my friends, I’d lost jobs, I’d lost accommodations due to my drug and alcohol addiction, and that ended up leaving me homeless.”

He felt a lot fear initially.

“The survival fight or flight instinct kicked in quite quickly. And I knew that I just had to get through today. It was really just, living day by day, trying to survive and get through it.”

Means of Survival

James was often looking for places of shelter as a means for surviving.

“Staying dry when it’s wet, staying cool when it’s hot. Those are the sort of things that you’re thinking about constantly.”

He didn’t have the comfort of his car for air-conditioning or shelter from the rain.

“I had to really think two steps ahead. If it was really hot, I would head to the library and chill out there in the aircon. If it was raining, I would catch the train and just go from one end of the city to the other.”

James was unable to access water and food until he came across Uniting WA and Tranby.

“I was introduced to Tranby Engagement Hub and there I met support workers that were able to provide me with the services that I needed, like crisis accommodation, with hopes of getting into rehab. It wasn’t just a place for me to have a shower, a coffee and a meal. I could actually sit face to face and have that human connection with somebody who was there to help me, someone that I could trust, someone that respected me, someone that didn’t look down on me for my situation.”

James said that Tranby saw him as a person who was going through a hard time and were willing to help him get through it.

“Receiving that love, support and understanding made all the difference. It made the turning point possible.”

Meeting people that had gone through similar circumstances also became a turning point for James.

“They told me about some of the services that were available and they said help is out there. We’ve just got to do the work, take action and apply the certain steps to be able to get there.”

The Essentials are Everything

James struggled to put into words how much the donations really help.

“The best way that I can think of describing it is that it felt like there was some hope. It felt like there was light at the end of the tunnel. You know, that someone was willing to take the time out of their day to do something good for somebody else.”

“I believe what we are all on this earth to do is to help one another, especially those that are struggling,” said James. “A sleeping bag on a cold night really made the difference between life and death.”

James was so grateful to be able to share his story and open the conversation of where the need is in our city.

“These are the conversations that hopefully lead to change. It really does make a difference to those people that feel invisible and feel helpless and hopeless. It gives us that lighter than the end of the tunnel.”

Check out the full chat with James below.