Stewart Howard once had enough money to put a deposit on a flat but a series of bad decisions landed him on the streets of Sydney, sleeping rough around Belmore Park, Central Station and Woolloomooloo.
He had spent his 30s caring for his elderly parents until they died, leaving him a small inheritance which he planned to put towards his first property.
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Sydney's homeless tell minister what they need
Minister for Family & Community Services and Minister for Social Housing Brad Hazzard meets with homeless people in Sydney in June 2015.
Instead, he lived in a motel, bought a car and only worked intermittently. After two years, his inheritance was gone and he was couch surfing with friends.
"I took up the offers at first - anything to have a roof over my head - but you start to feel a bit guilty when you're sleeping on a mate's couch all the time," he said. "Then I ended up on the street."
The 50-year-old former mechanic has been homeless on and off for 12 years, only recently moving into a small flat in Malabar with the help of mental health support group Neami National and the Department of Family and Community Services.
People in Mr Howard's predicament will form a crucial part of the state government's plan to address increasing rates of homelessness, with policy makers seeking the views of a broad cross-section of the community, from the philanthropists of Bellevue Hill to the rough sleepers in Belmore Park.
Mr Howard concedes he made some bad financial choices and didn't know where to turn for help.
"If I'd known how hard it was to live on the street, I never would have let myself end up there," he said.
"It's horrendous. It's not a life, it's just surviving. I still go to see people who live on the street and I tell them they don't have to live like this. There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."
Homelessness in NSW increased by 20 per cent between 2006 and 2011, rising to 28,000 people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The number of rough sleepers in the city reached its highest point since the City of Sydney started collecting data, with 486 people counted in February.
The NSW government's strategy, intended to reduce homelessness over the next decade, focuses on assisting people before they end up couch surfing, in crisis accommodation or on the street.
"Homelessness isn't just the men you see sleeping rough," Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard said.
"It's women and children sleeping in their cars. It's young people having to beg a couch from friends and never knowing where they will be the next night.
"Common sense says if we intervene earlier, we can prevent people from falling into this crisis.
"We want the best ideas from the community to help us get a strategy that makes a serious difference to vulnerable people who would otherwise have asphalt and not a mattress to lay their head."
The state government's "Foundations for Change – Homelessness in NSW" discussion paper, to be released this week, is seeking input from public and private sector groups and the broader community.
Homelessness NSW chief executive Katherine McKernan said more effort needed to go into early intervention, particularly for vulnerable groups such as young people, and women and children escaping domestic violence.
"We need to focus on affordable housing and ways to make the the private rental market more accessible," she said. "Services should concentrate on preventing homelessness rather than catching people when they're in crisis mode."