Stacey Quinn started using drugs from a young age growing up in O'Malley Park, Southill, in Limerick.
At 19, she was homeless and living in hostels in Limerick city.
Her story is one of redemption, however.
She overcame drug addiction and homelessness, and is now working with NOVAS, the homeless charity whose support services helped her get back on her feet.
Ms Quinn is also in her fourth year in the Technological University of the Shannon studying for a Bachelor's Degree in addiction and community development. Her thesis analyses the effectiveness of social policy in Ireland.
"I never in a million years thought I would be doing a thesis," she said.
"I went around college for the first two years with a dictionary. I went to school all my life, but being from Southill, you wouldn’t hear these big words, but I know them today."
Ms Quinn’s story is a ray of hope in the annual report from NOVAS, which otherwise makes for grim reading.
Last year, NOVAS worked with around 6,300 people, an increase of 160% in 10 years.
It housed 1,419 people and delivered emergency accommodation to those in acute need.
'A real systematic block'
McGarry House in Limerick city recorded more than 1,600 nighttime presentations and 60% of its residents had come directly from the streets.
The rise in rough sleeping is a grave concern for the charity.
Head of Advocacy and Communications Una Burns said demand continues to exceed capacity across its services.
"We particularly see this in our emergency homeless accommodation where people are living now in accommodation that is designed for up to six months, for really long periods of time, because there are very few exit pathways out of homelessness for them," she said.
"So this kind of emergency accommodation has become long-term housing for many people and prevents new people presenting from getting the supports and services that they need.
"There is a real systematic block and it’s resulting in more people rough sleeping and more people not being able to access the services that they need," she said.
NOVAS sees the sharp end of the housing and rental crisis. The chronic undersupply of social and affordable housing, coupled with a fragile private rental sector, is forcing more households into precarious or unaffordable living situations.
The contraction of the private rented market is particularly affecting single adults.
"Our social housing stock simply does not have those units of one bed accommodation," Ms Burns said, "and we really need to ramp up those smaller units of accommodation".
"60% of social housing waiting lists right across the country are of single individuals seeking one-bed units of accommodation so our housing needs to reflect that."
NOVAS welcomes the national development plan and the capital investment that was announced in the Budget earlier this week.
"But unless we link the homeless crisis to the housing supply, we will not be able to address the deficit in housing for the tens of thousands of people that are living in emergency accommodation, and the thousands more that are involuntary sharing with multiple generations of their family, that are waiting to spend their own lives in their own independent accommodation," Ms Burns added.
