After turbulent times and a spate of homelessness, Danny Nowell is now finding his feet again thanks to support from a homeless charity. JENNIFER KEE reports.

FREEDOM to do what he likes, to come and go as he pleases, is a luxury to Danny Nowell. Until recently, having been made homeless following a split with an ex-girlfriend, the kitchen assistant was living at the Peasholme centre, opposite Fishergate Postern Tower, in York.

Before that he was at Arc Light, in Union Terrace, where there was a curfew, which meant Danny had to be back before midnight every night.

Since he moved into Orwin House, however, things have been different for the 29-year-old.

Orwin is owned by Arc Light and acts as a “stepping stone” towards living independently for those who have been homeless.

But it’s a more relaxed environment than either Arc Light or the Peaseholme: and Danny has more space to be his own man.

“It’s nice and quiet here, and I can do what I like,” he says.

Danny ended up homeless after his relationship with his ex ran into difficulties. “We were arguing constantly about little things,” he says.

At times, he accepts, he can be his own worst enemy.

Even following a kidney transplant, for example, he would binge on beer, despite being told not to drink alcohol by doctors.

“There was a point when I was drinking about eight cans a night when I was arguing with my ex and when times were difficult.

“The problem is, I get drunk very easily because I only have one kidney.”

After being chucked out of his ex-girlfriend’s house, Danny had nowhere to go and saw no other option but to sleep rough “round the corner” after his shift as a cleaner at Tesco. That was at the end of 2012. “I had no money while I was sleeping rough because it was close to payday,” he says.

“I couldn’t shower or brush my teeth, but I used their toilets in the daytime and that was about it.”

He told no one about his housing situation as he “wanted to stand on his own two feet”.

Luckily, this only lasted two nights. His bosses at Tesco found out and, concerned and shocked, they encouraged him to find help.

As soon as he made the authorities aware of his situation, he was classified as a high-risk priority.

There was a simple reason for that. After suffering kidney failure in both kidneys in 2005, Danny had had to go on dialysis. He remained on dialysis for three years, until eventually a donor came forward to give him a new kidney.

As a transplantee with only one kidney, however, he was clearly even more vulnerable than many other people who end up on the streets.

After going to the council, Danny was put up in city centre B&Bs. He was forced to move on, however, when he was unable to keep up with payments.

“It was good that they arranged the B&Bs for me – until I saw the bill,” he says. “There was no way my wages would cover the fees. I was earning £100 a week and I had to buy all my food apart from breakfast which I got from the accommodation.”

After a brief period in a council-owned shared house in Acomb, Danny had to move out again, as the rent was too much.

It was only when he went to the Salvation Army that he really got the help he needed, he says. They put him straight into Arc Light where, due to his kidney transplant, he had a full-time room.

Usually, visitors to the centre have access to accommodation on a “one-stop” nightly basis and then can return later in the day to find out whether a bed is available but Danny’s health made him a priority for long-term accommodation.

He then went on to live in Peasholme for a few months.

“The Salvation Army are great,” he says. “They know places for the homeless and are more in touch with the homeless whereas the council only think ‘he is homeless, he will move somewhere else’.”

He has tried to convince other people he sees sleeping rough to go to the Salvation Army for help. “But they do not think they can do anything, even though I tell them to go there because they will get fed.”

He also sings the praises of staff at Arc Light, who he feels understand him. There were times when he did not want to be there, he admits: but they were a huge help.

Once, for example, he stopped taking his medication when he was suffering from a bout of serious migraines due to his body rejecting the new kidney.

“They made sure I was taking my medication every day and made me promise to carry on taking them. They put me on the straight and narrow.”

Having now settled into a job at Red Chilli, a Chinese restaurant in George Hudson Street, where he has worked for six months, Danny can start to think about his future.

Eventually he plans to move to Middlesbrough, where his new girlfriend is based: although before he does so, he has to pay off his arrears for the B&Bs and the shared accommodation in Acomb.

Ultimately, he thinks he would quite like to be a carer.

Looking after his grandma when he was in Manchester before she passed away gave Danny the idea. “When I have settled down more, I will look into getting the qualifications to be a carer but that is something for the future,” he says.

“It helps that my girlfriend is a carer. I see what she does and I think ‘I want to be doing that’. She keeps me on the straight and narrow,” he says with a grin on his face.

Making a better life for himself and a return to normality has been made possible thanks to Arc Light but Danny was glad to be in a position to leave.

“I said to myself I would never go back there, but then I joined the 5-a-side football team and I play every week when work doesn’t get in the way.”