Former 'functioning addict' helps the homeless after turning life around
BBCWhen Danny Foden became homeless, he was a "functioning addict" who had sold everything he owned to pay his drug dealers.
He used his last £10 to travel to a Christian homelessness support service in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in April 2019, which had been recommended by a female friend who struggled with alcohol.
Danny left a few months later in the September, clean from drugs and he turned his life around, becoming a support worker with Derby City Mission and working on a project to assist people with substance misuse issues and a history of rough sleeping.
He now works as a homeless project coordinator in Derby and is helping 12 people rebuild their lives in a single homeless accommodation project, ran by Derby City Mission.
"They know you've walked their shoes. You can finish their sentences. You can tell them how they feel when they wake up in the morning," Danny said.
Danny, from Bury in Greater Manchester, said he had a "really good upbringing" but "got in with a bad crowd" in his late teens and started using cocaine and other drugs from the age of 23.
He described himself as a "functioning addict" having maintained his job as a postman while taking drugs until he was 40.
"Then it just stripped me, to the point where I had nowhere to live," Danny said. "I sold everything in my flat and I was owing loads of money to drug dealers.
"I tried everything. I lost contact with my son and everything was taken away."
It was at this point that his friend recommended Lighthouse Homes, accommodation where Danny received support from on-site staff, cooked communal meals and regained his faith.
"I came out of there clean and sober... it was such a transformation," he said.
After leaving Lighthouse Homes, Danny went on a family holiday to regain trust with his parents and prove to them that the recovery programme had worked.
"My family's all back together now," he said. "My son's in my life again - it was a huge transformation."
Danny, who later married the friend who recommended Lighthouse Homes, has now become the coordinator of the single homeless accommodation project, in partnership with Derby Homes, which started in October 2025.
The building he works in has living rooms, a communal kitchen, a garden and 12 studio flats with cooking facilities, and offers non-secure tenancies for people "entrenched in rough sleeping, substance misuse and cannot be housed anywhere else".
Danny said: "They've burned all their bridges. They can't hold a hostel down.
"They won't even stay in an overnight temporary accommodation for one night. They'll just be out taking drugs."
Two other staff members work with Danny during the day, organising activities, advocating for the residents at appointments and working with them alongside the drug and alcohol services.
Asked about Prime Minister Andy Burnham's ambition of ending rough sleeping, which he made as his first policy pledge after taking office, Danny said: "Just giving an addict keys for a flat and expecting them to get on in life is just never going to happen - it's just a waste of time and money for everybody."
However, he said increasing addiction support and rehabilitation programmes was crucial to helping homeless people struggling with addiction.
"Give them rehabilitation programmes and they'll hopefully do what I am - being part of society and paying taxes," Danny added.
He said: "It's going to cost a lot of money, but you'll get that back in the long run.
"Prisons, ambulances, hospitals - we're paying so much money out, when that could be invested into rehabs, into places where these people go, get listened to, get fixed and get put back into society."
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been contacted for comment.
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