How Haven Cartley found himself homeless at the young of 20

When college came around Haven was thinking about what he wanted to do with his life. He was getting pulled from all different directions by his college and by his family. However, he was more focused on going into the workforce.

‘‘I did not want to do that because I felt like I needed real-life experience if you to get a job.’’

He applied for many apprenticeships in a user experience design company in Princeton reached out to him. Due to travel costs, he ended up moving in with his uncle and commuting to Princeton. While he was working, University was still on his mind Heaven was undecided about going.

‘‘After a while, I knew my job position I still had not told my family I was not going.’’

Instead of not going to University, he switched the application from full-time to part-time, which meant that he had to commute from Princeton to Leicester every day if he wanted to get to his classes on time. There was finical stress on him since he was not getting any maintenance loans due to him being a part-time student.

Although the people around him were supportive thinking, about accommodation 24/7 did affect him.

“The situation did affect the studies I kept trying to figure out where I could sleep at night rather than focusing on my work.”

“I was sleeping in my car to start with for the first lesson I asked one of the guys in my class if I could sleep on his sofa were friends for life now.”

The connection with his faith helped him through the difficult moments.

“Faith in God's prayer, knowing that there is a high power looking after me. I did not have anything to fear. When I look back it could have been a lot worse than it was.”

Haven feels like this experience shaped him into the person that he is today.

“I am an independent person: it made me want to go against the grain even more and think outside of the box.”