MICHAEL Smith, a formerly successful businessman, was left, broke, homeless and addicted to drugs, but now, a group home in Lyons has given him the help he needs. 

After some false starts, the 54-year-old came across a Community Housing Canberra (CHC) group home, which is one of six CHC group homes in the ACT that offers affordable housing for people living with mental illness, people with disability and elderly residents. 

Michael says he’s hit the jackpot with his studio bedroom but it’s taken him some time to get there, saying his undoing started around the time his mum, who had advanced Parkinson’s, died in 2007. 

At the time Michael was running his own media consultancy business in Canberra but ended up having to move back to Victoria to look after his mum. 

Her sickness took a huge toll and when she died, he says, it was like losing an arm or a leg. 

Staying in Victoria, Michael, who had let go of his business, for the first time found it hard to find a job, being told he was overqualified by potential employers. 

“I found myself, really without any money,” he says. 

“There was a time where I hadn’t eaten for several days. I had borrowed a lot of money from family and friends and after six months I still couldn’t pay them back.”

Michael never thought he would be someone to end up in a position where he couldn’t afford food. He was successful in his career, he was the media adviser for three World Congresses, did a 12-month mission with the Australian Red Cross as its emergency services adviser, was a journalist for 10 years, including five years at London’s Old Bailey Criminal Court, he was the manager of the media unit at the Victorian Education Department in 1994, and was the media adviser for Education Minister Don Hayward. In 1996 he became the media adviser to the then federal Education and Employment Minister David Kemp.

“I was the media adviser to the Minister for Employment in the Howard government and then there I was in the unemployment line at Centrelink,” he says. 

“I didn’t want to sign on to Centrelink because I kept thinking something will come up, and then, after eight months of thinking something will come up, went to Centrelink.

“I felt humiliated and ashamed as if I was a failure. How could the media adviser to the Employment Minister be on Centrelink? But I got so desperate.”

Michael waited about eight months for Centrelink to do a complex assessment on his situation, and during that time, he says he was forced to go to the Salvation Army to get food vouchers.

“That was one of the lowest points for me,” he says.

“It was really hard for me to swallow my pride.”

He ended up getting a three-hour shift at a cafe, at $20 an hour, and says he was putting everything he could into his house to stop it from being repossessed.

During those hard years, Michael also turned to meth and alcohol to cope.

“There were six months there that [meth] was controlling me and I was aware that it was,” says Michael, who had to ask a friend to help him come off the drugs. 

“I had to change my phone and mobile number so I couldn’t ask for more.

“It was hard. I understand completely why it’s so addictive.”

But the absolute lowest point for Michael was when he was drunk and  unconscious in a gutter in Castlemaine.

“I had turned to alcohol as an escape because it was cheap,” he says. 

“I was working on a Friday night, I hadn’t eaten, had half a bottle of champagne, stepped out on to the footpath and staggered and fell into the gutter.

“That was the night I knew I was in trouble. I could have been killed. Big trucks are always going down that road, which has no lights.” 

It was a taxi driver that Michael says pulled over and saved him. It was also the wake up call that Michael needed, and after he sold his house, cleared his debt, and tried to get back on his feet. 

A few years ago Michael moved back to Canberra but it was really hard for him to get rental accommodation. 

“I was paying $300 a week in O’Malley [in a shared home],” he says. 

That was when he came across the Canberra Homes Canberra advertisement, which he applied for and got approved. 

“I didn’t think I’d get it. I fell down on the floor and started crying because I realised I had a roof over my head at a base I could afford,” says Michael, who is now studying a personal training diploma at CIT and is a Weight Watchers coach. 

“I hit the jackpot. I know how much it costs, I know I have to go out and earn enough money to pay that bill every fortnight.

“I’ve got a foundation here and I can start building again. I was in the abyss for so long. 

“There were a number of false starts but I haven’t touched alcohol for over a year now because that could lead to three and three can lead to five.”