Two months ago Tomasz Janas had a job, a flat and a secure life. Today he is sitting on the freezing cold floor in Liverpool after another night bedding down in a shop doorway.
Just 34-years-old, it is clear to see that Tomasz has not been sleeping rough for long. While more entrenched rough sleepers wear the scars and signs of months of years of hardship, his skin is clean and fresh, his eyes wide with worry about how his life has quickly spiralled to this desperate point.
Tomasz came to England from his native Poland seven years ago, looking for a better life. Until recently he says he was achieving that, working as a forklift driver, renting a flat and generally getting by ok.
READ MORE: 'The cold snaps your face' - the reality of sleeping rough in a brutal Liverpool winter
But not long ago he was suddenly let go from that job. While he was in receipt of Universal Credit that should have continued to pay his rent, he says his landlord kicked him out without notice - he couldn't afford a lawyer to challenge the decision in the courts.
Yesterday I spent time talking to people sleeping rough in dangerously cold winter conditions in Liverpool city centre. Each story was hard to hear and even harder to reconcile in one of the richest countries in the world in 2022.
But while all the stories left a mark on me, it was Tomasz that I couldn't stop thinking about. His experience shines a harrowing light on how many people are just one or two pay cheques or a sudden, unavoidable change of circumstance away from destitution.
This young man, who was working hard, paying his way and keen to build his life suddenly, through no fault of his own, found himself sleeping in bushes or in shop doorways as temperatures dropped to minus 4 degrees. Unfortunately he won't be the only one forced into this horrendous situation in the weeks and months ahead.
Homelessness charity Shelter said its emergency helpline has been receiving more than 1,000 calls a day, with 70% of those callers telling them the cost of living surge is pushing them to the brink of losing their home.
Shelter said that almost eight in 10 callers are already homeless or at risk of homelessness. This comes at a time when private rents are reaching record highs, household bills are spiralling and more and more people are struggling to keep up with their housing costs.
To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, for many people becoming homeless will happen gradually then suddenly. Many are struggling to pay their bills, their rent and put food on the table. Suddenly, one of these pressures will become too much and - like Tomasz - that person will find themselves in a situation they never thought imaginable, without a roof over their heads.
The fact of the matter is that the support networks in this country, slashed away so brutally over the past 12 gruelling years, are not fit to deal with the humanitarian crisis we are now experiencing. In its 2019 report Human Rights Watch found that the budget allocated for children and families fell by a huge 44% between 2010 and 2018.
Now, as the country and its most people are buffeted by the competing crises of inflation, soaring rents and mind-boggling energy price increases, we are sadly seeing what it really means to not have sufficient safety nets in place.
Even City Councils like Liverpool, covering some of the most deprived areas of the country, are now being forced through further government cuts, to axe jobs and services that specifically help and support those struggling to get by on benefits. - so it's only going to get worse.
Charities, voluntary groups and kind-hearted individuals are doing their best to fill in the increasingly gaping holes, but it is an uphill battle and one they simply can't win. Until something drastically changes, we will see more and more people in the same position as Tomasz.
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