by Joe Walker

Steve Williamson lives in the woods.

He has done for almost 25 years - living the life of a nomad, traipsing from town to town with his worldly possessions in a worn, grey rucksack.

But Herne Bay is his home now, pitched in a tent behind a holly bush in woods at Herne Common.

Never fitting in wherever he’s been, he has only one friend he can trust; his fiercely loyal dog Jack, who has been by his side for seven years.

The 44-year-old lives off a diet of potatoes, kidney beans and road kill, likening fox to fillet steak and bemoaning the taste of squirrel.

His £63-a-week benefits barely cover his need for vodka, cannabis and super-strength lager, having battled alcoholism since he was 16.

He’s had two showers since June last year and cleaned his teeth only four times, such is life without the pleasures of a bathroom.

While on the road he’s been mugged, beaten, ridiculed and threatened with a knife, so it’s little surprise he wants out. He wants a house to call his home and the everyday comforts of running water and a bed at night.

Not since he was 21, when he embarked on his nomadic, troubled existence, has he been afforded such 'luxury’.

But it was as if Steve was always going to be dealt a bad hand in life.

Born in an RAF base in Malta in 1967, he developed an illness that governed the amount of calcium his body could produce.

But the disease, which stunted his growth and mental development, caused him to be bullied as a child every day.

This left him with just one aspiration - to be on the dole.

Steve picked up qualifications in English, art and science, but his next few years were spent drinking with jobless friends.

It wasn’t until he was 21, and feeling despondent about life after a stint working in a Guernsey hotel, that Steve decided to hit the road.

Armed with only a tent and some bare essentials, he pitched up in towns all over the country, working oddjobs on farms and in factories.

He said: “I just wanted to find somewhere I could call home; somewhere I could relax and be accepted for who I was. But everywhere I went I felt I didn’t fit in.”

On the road and with no stability in his life, Steve found himself spiralling into a world of depression and alcoholism.

He said: “I think I’ve been an alcoholic since my first drink when I was 16. It helped kill the pain of the depression...

“I had no real friends – only the people I would see at the pub and on the street.

“I’d get drunk and make a complete prat of myself. Everybody would laugh and I would think this is great; it was funny.

“But then I came to realise they were laughing at me, and not with me.”

A homeless life isn’t an easy one and Steve encountered his fair share of troubles in his early years on the streets.

He said: “I was threatened with a knife twice and beaten badly. Some people took me behind the back of a church and kicked me unconscious when I said I didn’t have any money. They even pulled my pants down round my ankles so when I woke up I’d think I’d been raped.”

It wasn’t until 2006 that Steve ended up in Herne Bay, waking up on the beach after a three-week bender on booze and drugs with no recollection of how he got there.

For the last five years Steve has lived the same existence, braving the elements, hunger and his daily battles with addiction.

"i envy people who wake up and think 'i’ll put the kettle on and have some fried eggs on toast’" – steve williamson

But one thing gets him through the day; the love of his sidekick Jack.

He said: “I don’t know what I’d do without Jack. I keep myself alive for him.

“If it wasn’t for him I would have had a noose around my neck by now. If I lost him they’d be no point living.”

Now he's had enough - and put himself on the city council’s housing list.

He said: “I’ve been going from place to place, living in the woods for almost 25 years. I can’t take it anymore.

“I just want to get indoors. I want somewhere I can cook and somewhere I can keep myself clean. I’ve only had two showers since June 22 last year and cleaned my teeth four times. When you live like me it’s hard and you think what’s the point, but you learn to disguise it. The occasional wipe does the job.

“I envy people who wake up and think 'I’ll put the kettle on and have some fried eggs on toast’. Even just a bed to sleep in will do.

“Getting a home is the first step to turning my life around.”