Jonny Duffy, 57, currently lives in a shared Sustain UK home in Alum Rock. After experiencing profound personal loss and struggling with addiction, Jonny found stability through a positive living environment and the dedication of support workers. This is Jonny’s story.
Before moving into supported housing, I lived what I’d consider a normal life. I had my own home, a stable family environment, and the usual day-to-day responsibilities and household costs.
For many years, life felt secure. I had built a career in the automotive industry and was happy. Everything changed, though, after my partner died suddenly in a car accident while abroad.
Because our work and travel often meant we spent long periods apart, I didn’t find out what had happened straight away. That delay made it much harder for me to properly process the reality of the loss.
My struggle with addiction and substance abuse began through grief and not knowing how to cope with that loss in a healthy way.
My addiction developed gradually, until unhealthy behaviour started to feel normal. Over time, it became so embedded in my life that I lost sight of where I started and could no longer recognise the person I used to be.
I knew that a huge part of my addiction was related to the grief and trauma that I had experienced.
At that point in my life, I didn’t have the right support and it became harder to recognise when things were going wrong but I knew I needed help.
Moving into shared accommodation was initially a shock. I’d lived independently for most of my adult life, so moving into a house with people I didn’t know felt unfamiliar at first.
However, my first impression of moving into a Sustain UK home was that it was clean and tidy, and after a while it began to feel like home.
Living alongside others who are also committed to recovery has also helped create a positive and supportive atmosphere.
I now live with people who are serious about getting better, what I call being ‘in it to win it’ and this sense of community has played a major role in helping me rebuild my life.
It’s fair to say that without the support workers I’ve had, I wouldn’t have made it this far.
A good support worker helps you understand, through your own experiences, what support you need and how to move towards a better place in life.
Sometimes sympathy alone isn’t enough. If you want to make a change, you also need people who will challenge you, keep you accountable and push you in the right direction.
When you start drifting, they help bring you back on track and keep you moving forward - and that’s the kind of support I’ve been lucky to receive with the help of Sustain UK.
Without this in your life, you don’t have parameters to work within. You need someone outside yourself who can identify when you’re in danger and help bring you back to normality.
But this desire has to come from within yourself, first and foremost. Unless you have the desire to change and achieve your goals, it will never happen.
I’m now really focused on my recovery and building a future for myself, including getting back into work.
It’s been a long journey, it took around five years to come to terms with the loss itself, and then another five years to work through the addiction that followed.
Since becoming abstinent, I finally feel like I’m getting back to being myself again. We have a really positive atmosphere in the house, everyone looks out for each other, and I like to think I’m the glue that brings everyone together.
I know how fortunate I’ve been to receive the right support when I needed it most, because I’ve known others who never had that chance and, sadly, aren’t here anymore.
Now, I’m in a much better place and genuinely feel positive about what lies ahead.
Jonny is one of 1,400 people across Birmingham and the West Midlands housed and supported by specialist housing provider, Sustain UK.
If you recognise some of the issues in this article and are facing homelessness, you can find out about applying for a tenancy with Sustain at our ‘Who is Eligible?’ page: https://sustainuk.org/how-to-apply/who-is-eligible/
You can contact us by phone on 0121 428 2221 or at info@sustainuk.org
