I’m Dave and I originally come from Harrogate, Yorkshire. I came to Emmaus Leeds in March 2024.
I left home at quite a young age and milled around. I somehow became a chef and did that for years. Therein lie all my problems with addiction, heavy drinking and drugs – the lot. When I was a trainee chef, the head chef would bring in pitchers of beer on the close-down. I worked at a hotel and was allowed a bar tab at 16 years of age. Drinking was a massive part of the job, we always had drinks after work.
I started rough sleeping after finding myself homeless about 20 years ago. I’d burnt bridges with too many people and had nowhere to go. I had a bag with all my worldly possessions inside it, so I jumped on a train to Leeds. I stayed in hostels, or I would meet a woman and move in with her, or get a private tenancy, and break up, and the cycle would be repeated.
In 2005 I got sent to prison for a stupid fight I’d gotten into, and I regretted it. Prison is just like it is in the movies. I remember getting there, seeing the open wings, and feeling like I was in a horror. It was a major shock to the system. I was in prison for around three years. Because of my time living on the streets, I actually knew a few people there, so I had some friends and managed to keep my head down. I didn’t touch drugs in there even though there was plenty going around.
I got out of prison and was in a bail hostel in Headingly and then I managed to find myself somewhere to live. I found myself steady work as a chef and managed to work my way up to head chef, on a good wage with lots of responsibilities. I was living with my partner of seven years and the drug taking had gotten bad. I was using it as a way of coping with the stress of my busy job. I was working about 50 hours a week and running on stress and anxiety. My head was always at work and never in the relationship. My partner got fed up with it all and told me she’d had enough, and I needed to leave. With everything going on I ended up losing the job too.
I went to live with a friend but that was really bad as he was an alcoholic and I was sleeping on a chair in his room, which, as you might imagine, wasn’t very comfortable. We would get up and drink and take drugs and it got to the point where I knew I needed to sort myself out. I rang my brother who was already living at Emmaus Leeds and asked what I needed to do to get a place here.
So, I came to Emmaus Leeds in March 2024 and I have been enjoying doing things that I wouldn’t normally do. My main tasks around the community are doing maintenance jobs. I’ve been redecorating a lot of the rooms, which I like doing. I’ve just done up a bigger room, by painting and recarpeting it and I’m planning to move my stuff in there. I’ve tried most of the work opportunities available, like working in the shops and the vans, and I sometimes cook at the weekends, which is nice because I get to use my skills, but I wouldn’t want to be doing it all the time as it can trigger me a bit. What I like about Emmaus is that I get to spend my time actually doing something. There are so many work opportunities and that’s good when you are like me and want to keep busy.
On my days off I like to play on my Xbox and make content for TikTok. I’ve recently gained over 1200 followers. I also play for the Emmaus Leeds football team on Tuesdays, which I won’t go on, as we have been losing a lot! I have got back into fishing, after an old friend of mine messaged me on LinkedIn and asked me if I would like to go with him. I was a bit worried about what he’d think about my life, but he was really nice, and he has been picking me up and dropping me off. It’s been good for me. I also go to the gym and play Lego in my spare time. I have loads of hobbies it seems!
If someone was thinking about joining an Emmaus, I’d say go for it. You do have to get your head around living in a community with other people, but once you do that it’s fine. At the end of the day these people have been in similar situations to you and can support you in ways that professional support workers can’t, even though I have to say the support workers here are great.
In the future I’d like to get back to work but that looks a lot different to me now that I have had time to process things. I don’t want to go back to catering, instead I’d like to do something that involves helping people, maybe a support worker role. I’d also like to grow my TikTok following to over 10k so watch this space!