It took a photo of Andrew's two-year-old daughter to motivate the former rough-sleeper to get off drugs and the mean streets of central Sydney.
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Andrew, 41, who now lives in New England, told his story to people across the region who logged in to watch an information session on the night of the annual NSW Vinnie's Community Sleepout on Friday.
About 40 people in Armidale, Tamworth, Tenterfield, Dubbo and Orange slept in warehouses or high school halls with nothing but donated cardboard boxes and sleeping bags to keep the minus two degrees celsius chill at bay.
Another 30 people slept 'rough' at home on a couch, outside or in the car, representing homelessness too.
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The sleepout raises funds and awareness of homelessness-related issues such as housing affordability and of increasing the rate of jobseeker payments which can keep a person in a vicious cycle of relentless poverty.
So far, about $250k of the $260k goal has been achieved NSW state-wide, with the drive for donations open until the end of September.
In Tenterfield, where seven people slept the night in the high school hall, a woman who had ended up homeless during the pandemic shared her story.
Organiser Giana Saccon said they had seven people stay for the night in the school hall, in the swags and sleeping bags.
Meanwhile, she said she was shocked during the information session, hearing how Andrew had slept in a bin.
Vinnie's North West Regional Director Phil Donnan said Andrew's story had a high impact on the people who listened to how easy it can be for a person to become homeless and what sort of life it can be like.
"I know everybody got up in the morning after not having their normal night's sleep and went 'wow, some people live like that every day of their lives'," Mr Donnan said.
"Everyone certainly had a better night's sleep but not that night."
The event also gave councillors, business people and others the chance to share ideas and have discussions about how poverty and homelessness can be alleviated in their communities.
The story of Andrew
Today Andrew lives in a private rental house in Armidale, working to support himself after making the switch to paid employment.
His life as a rough sleeper began along the NSW Central Coast two decades earlier at the age of 22 when he was forced to couch-surf at friends' houses due to a rocky relationship with his step father.
After a stint overseas, Andrew returned to Australia but found himself sleeping on Sydney's streets before getting married at the age of 32 with a baby on the way.
The relationship did not last, and before long he was making his nightly bed in gutters or behind St Vinnie's bins in Bondi, Sydney Central Station or along the NSW Central Coast.
"It was pretty crazy, pretty windy, pretty cold," Andrew said. Scarily, he was even "bashed" at one point.
Holding down a job became impossible without a fixed address as he battled a drug addiction too. "I got into a rut of stealing stuff just to survive," he said. That was, until he saw a photo of his daughter.
"I'd seen a photo of my daughter and I said to myself, 'this is it, I've got to do something'. And I changed my attitude totally," he said.
"I went to (Sydney's) Royal North Shore hospital, handed myself in and said, 'I want to get clean, I want to get somewhere in life'."
It was not long before he was referred to the Freemason House in Armidale where he linked-up with the St Vincent De Paul Society. The good samaritan organisation took him on as a volunteer before offering him paid employment, which enabled him to find a place to live.
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