Meet Miguel

Hi, I’m Miguel. To begin my story, I was born in Mozambique, but my mum and family moved to Portugal when I was under a year old, so I don’t remember anything about living there.

Everything I know about growing up is from Portugal. I was raised by a single mum who is one of a kind, she did everything she could for me to succeed in life. I’m happy to see that she’s still around to see me doing well because there was a time when I thought that she never would. 

I struggled a lot with drugs, addiction, and my mental health, so in 2006, I moved to Spain looking for a better life and a fresh start. However, there was a lot of people who made judgements and assumptions about where I was from, and I ended up down the police station a lot. One of my friends who was from Leicester asked me if I wanted to give life in England a try. So, on January 8, 2007, I moved to Leicester. 

It was going great. I met a girl who I was with for nearly 3 years. I thought we could have got married, but there were external pressures, and, in the end, she left me. At that time, I was clean, working in a supermarket. I was on a course that could have made me a manager. However, part of addiction is that when you’re feeling down emotionally, you often turn to what you know will best numb the pain. We know that our addictions are bad for us – it’s not just a simple choice – but we’re powerless to it. It’s an easy way out, because when you’re high, you’re just in that moment. All the real issues you’re facing get brushed under the carpet. It becomes a routine, and you feel like you’re functioning fine until it all starts going wrong.  

From 2014-2016, I started getting help from Turning Point.

My coach was a lovely lady who I’ll never forget. She made me believe there was a better way. So, I went to rehab in Bournemouth for a year and a half to detox. Once I’d had that clean time, I thought I knew best on my own. This was a BIG mistake. I’d end up going to pubs to have a few drinks, and when I wasn’t sober, I didn’t make good decisions. I ended up relapsing and I was stuck in this cycle for 6 months. I wanted to move and get away, but I couldn’t. In the end, a good friend of mine – on his own initiative – drove from Leicester to Bournemouth to pick me up. He said, ‘If you don’t come with me, you could die down here,’ so I joined him and went back to staying with my mum.  

However, after a while, my mum made the decision to kick me out of the house because of my lifestyle – which was probably one of the best decisions she could have made. I got back in contact with Turning Point, and I was put up in a hostel called Unity House, where you’re not allowed to use drugs. You have to do a breathalyser test and drug tests to be in there. There was a lot of pressure because the hostels either side allowed drug use. But I thought: it was using that brought me to the hostel in the first place, and it was there or the street, so it convinced me to stay on course. It was really life changing. After a year and a half there, things started to fall into place. 

Learning about the Naumann Initiative was such a strange coincidence.

My mum was living in PA accommodation, and she received a call from Kelly, her Sheltered Tenancy Officer. However, because my mum doesn’t speak much English, she panicked and called me. I’m still not sure I remember what the original call was about, but Kelly knew about my situation, and she told me about the Naumann Initiative which would offer me both a home and a job. I thought, ‘Wow, this is too good to be true!’  

I was so negative and down on myself that I didn’t believe I could do it. I turned up on the training day in a tracksuit – which just isn’t me. But once I was there, I gave it my best shot. After that, I got another phone call telling me I’d passed that stage. All this was so new to me – I’d only ever done manual shop labour – so being interviewed by two people about office work was really overwhelming. Once it had finished, I still wasn’t confident – wondering what I could have said. But then, around 3-4pm that same day, I got a phone call congratulating me on getting the job. 

I was on top of the world, thinking ‘Did this really happen to me? Will I really be working for the company that has provided this good service to my mum over the years?’ There can’t be many companies who would take a risk on an initiative like this because addicts have a bad reputation. Our society can be quick to judge people and they never ask why people have ended up homeless. If being an addict was a conscious choice, there wouldn’t be so many addicts in the world. It’s massive what PA did – and I’m still here!

I sat down with the Housing Hub Team Manager at PA about possibly joining the Housing Hub, and I was very nervous because I thought it was another interview. He reassured me and he said, ‘Jose (which is my real first name), you’ve got the job. I just want to find out more about you.’ He saw something in me and kept me on in the Housing Hub for a while.   

There were definitely challenging times

I had never worked with computers before, so everything was new. I doubted whether I could learn how to do it, but my manager got me on some training courses for our systems and everyone around me put their trust in me. So, I felt like I had something to prove to them. This was during the pandemic, so being part of a small team in the office presented challenges too. But somehow, I succeeded. 

There are still some areas where I struggle, like with writing emails and things like that. Sometimes, people can take this sort of knowledge for granted, but I’d never done anything like that before so it can take me longer to pick these things up. 

As part of my development, I was always supposed to move around a bit to learn about different areas of the business. I was given the chance to join the Tenancy Sustainment Team, helping residents to save money. Coming from my background, I can empathise with people going through financial hardship. 

However, before starting, I had a lot of anxiety and I doubted I could do the role. I was in a dark place, and I even considered quitting PA, but the people around me gave me a good shake up and allowed me to hit reset. I’m glad I didn’t give up, and I realise that I always have to challenge that negative thought process. I couldn’t be on this journey on my own, so I’m grateful for the people who encourage me to think about things from a different perspective. Now though, I think it’s amazing to be helping other people through my role.  

I know the other three on the Naumann Initiative are no longer at PA, but I hope they’re all doing well, and that PA Housing can repeat my success with more people in the future.

Thank you

Also, I’d like to thank Simon Hatchman, Executive Director of Resources, for giving me this opportunity with this scheme because, in my life, I’m used to being met with closed doors. PA’s willingness to help has changed my life. It means a lot to work for a company who cares about you, both as an employee and a resident. 

Everyone has been helpful, including my colleagues in HR, and everything HR have put in place to support me. Whilst some could see this as preferential treatment, I’m still a work in progress. After twenty years of living one way, I still have so much to learn about myself at 44. People don’t realise the ups and downs I go through. Seeing me now, you wouldn’t think I was homeless only two and a half years ago. I have to be in the right frame of mind to succeed – and I can only get the help I need if I’m open and honest.