Former teacher, school principal and state manager at a large IT company, Scott Butler never imagined he would end up homeless.

“My world collapsed,” the 56-year-old said.

“You suddenly have nowhere to go, you have no security, you don’t know what you’re going to do, where you’re going to be.”

His harrowing experience began after a six-month battle with a life-threatening illness in 2013.

“I was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma, a very aggressive form of cancer,” he said.

“I spent six months in St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney fighting that.”

‘I found myself homeless and on the streets’

Mr Butler returned to his home on the New South Wales North Coast to find his landlord had died and his stable accommodation was no more.

“Rental prices were just unbelievable, even at that point,” he said.

In New South Wales, less than 1 per cent of all private rentals are affordable to people on income support, according to figures from Anglicare.

“I am on a disability pension because of a chronic disease as well as the cancer, and so paying $250 a week is more than 50 per cent of my income, which made it extremely difficult,” Mr Butler said.

Mr Butler moved in with a friend in Brunswick Heads, but the relationship was tumultuous.

“Very late one night, I found myself homeless and on the streets, myself and my dog in my car,” he said.

What followed next, was a number of sleepless nights as Mr Butler feared for his safety.

“And it’s not something that you do because you want to, you have no other choice.”

Medical conditions contribute to homelessness

Mr Butler has now been living in stable rental accommodation, but according to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, about 27 per cent of people identified health issues as one of the reasons for needing assistance from a homeless service, and about 5 per cent said it was the main reason.

Homelessness NSW chief Katherine McKernan said homeless services turned more people away from crisis accommodation than they were able to help.

She said medical issues and a lack of affordable housing contributed to the problem.

Mr Butler is part of the LGBTQI community, which is over-represented in homelessness statistics.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics report found that twice as many gay and lesbian people had experienced homelessness, compared with their heterosexual counterparts.

Melbourne University Associate Professor Ruth McNair said anecdotal evidence from homeless services and those with lived experience showed rejection from family was a big driver of homelessness, particularly among young members of the LGBTQI community.

For older members, she said the costs associated with some medical conditions — including loss of work — can be a contributing factor to homelessness.

“Whether it be HIV and other complications and issues related to that,” she said.

“Or for trans people, issues around the cost of transitioning in Australia, which is very high, and can lead to job loss, poverty and the cycle of issues that subsequently lead to homelessness.”

Don’t ever think ‘I’m safe, it’s not going to happen to me.’

More than a million low-income households were in financial housing stress prior to COVID-19, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This means many people are only one or two pay cheques away from being unable to pay their rent, facing eviction and potentially homelessness.

Mr Butler said his own experience of being homelessness has made him realised no-one was immune.

“Don’t ever think, ‘I’m safe, it’s not going to happen to me’,” he said.

“It can just take one thing, or it may take an accumulation of things, but it can happen to everyone.”

Mr Butler was eventually able to find stable accommodation, through friends and organisations such as The Bobby GoldSmith Foundation and the Cunning Stunts fundraising team.

“But once you get into some form of safe, secure, long-term accommodation, your world changes.”

This is the first part in a homelessness series from ABC North Coast.