Life on the Streets

tells the stories of the homeless or those working on the streets. Learn why people end up homeless or have turned to prostitution. While writing this book, I said to a friend that for me to really write a good book about being homeless, I needed to be homeless, not thinking for a minute that this would happen to me. However, my life took a bad turn and I was descending in a downward spiral. This is the true story of homeless people from both New Zealand and Australia. It also incorporates my life, from living in a house, to being evicted, to living on a bus, and then moving to Australia with my kids, and having nothing but $280 to my name. I lived in an elaborate six-bedroom home in Australia with a friend who eventually ripped me off, kicking me and my kids out. I had nowhere to go and didn’t know what to do. Organisations offered assistance with temporary accommodation in a motel and a backpackers’ residence, where I lived with my kids for eight months. My memoir shows that life can change in an instant and without warning. It presents a rollercoaster of life’s ups and downs that I endured to get to where I am now, pursuing a meaningful life on the Gold Coast. Kim O’Brien-Williams grew up in Brighton, a small beach town just outside Dunedin, New Zealand. She is currently a chef working on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. This is her second book and was inspired by meeting a homeless man who told her his life story.