Following the Mail's report on youth homelessness in Bunbury last week, a young woman was brave enough to share her story.
Wishing to remain annonymous, the 20-year-old from the Greater Bunbury region spent more than eight months living in her car after her parents kicked her out of home.
"I was 17 when I was kicked out," she said.
"I didn't have a very good school life and I wanted a break after I finished school, Mum did not agree, she thought I was being lazy.
"Mum and I had an argument, she came home and decided she wanted to confront me about it - we argued and she said just get out - I felt completely unwanted and useless."
The young woman recalled looking at her car keys and a knife for several minutes before driving herself to the emergency department - fearing she would take her own life.
After being kicked out she organised to stay at a friends place for a few weeks but after that had to sleep in her car.
"I had one shirt and a pair of shorts and some shoes," she said.
"I had to make hard choices - there were days, sometimes weeks where I would make a decision between do I eat today or put fuel in the car.
"There were times where I would make a loaf of bread last a month because I had to."
What started out as feeling "like camping but colder", became increasingly difficult, with the young woman having to sleep upright, getting stiff from the cold and receiving parking fines after not waking up in time to change the ticket.
"I had very little knowledge about support for homeless people, what little I did find was unhelpful - the waiting list for a bed was six months and what use is six months when I'm freezing now," she said.
"We learn what a homeless person is but we don't get any education on how to support our friends if they are in danger of becoming homeless.
"We need to know how to deal with this because it goes hand-in-hand with a lot of issues like domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction."
Through all of it the young woman regularly attended headspace and said she was grateful for the support and counselling she was given, which helped her communicate better with her parents.
"It eventually got to a point where I was able to spend a couple of nights there a month, then a week and then I moved back in," she said.
"It took a change in mindset, I couldn't achieve anything if I just went around being a victim my whole life.
"I'm looking forward to doing something productive now that I've got my feet under me, hopefully in the future I'll be able to do something to help people in return."
