After a chaotic childhood punctuated by turbulent spells at home, Ms Henaway says she started sleeping rough when a dispute with a family member turned violent.

“I slept rough but never slept at night time because it’s really dangerous to sleep at night as a female, especially in Mackay – because it’s terrible for violence and drugs,” Ms Henaway said.

“I was forced to sleep in a park, in the city, a playground. But at night, it was non-stop walking from sunset to sunrise – I didn’t really stop in one place.

“It was the only time in my life where I wanted to be picked up by the police, because I knew that I would have somewhere safe to sleep if I was.”

After she fled the family home, Ms Henaway thought she would easily be able to couch-surf with a friend.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got loads of friends, I can couch-surf.’ But the reality was, no one wanted to take me in,” she said.

“I walked across every corner of town to find a house to stay at and the first night, I ended up sleeping on the lawn outside someone’s house because I was just so exhausted.

“They wouldn’t let me stay in the house, so I had to sleep outside on the nature strip.”

This went on for a month, before she moved in with a series of extended family members. But because of family tensions and the pressures of looking after a teenage girl, those arrangements fell apart within three months.

After her parents separated and her mother moved to Brisbane, Ms Henaway moved south to join her.

By the time she was 18 and in the final year of high school, she discovered she was pregnant.

“I had to drop out of high school because I fell pregnant halfway through year 12,” Ms Henaway said.

Three weeks after she gave birth to her son, Oliver, the relationship with her mother was so strained Henaway said she had to leave.

“I had to pack up my stuff and frantically find somewhere to live, so I went with my partner at the time to his parents’ house and we stayed there for maybe three months,” she recalled.

“It’s not fun having a baby and living in someone else’s house. So that was a pretty interesting time.”

Not long after, the young couple decided to rent their own place. The plan was for Ms Henaway to finish school and for her partner to work. But she said her pregnancy was the catalyst that saw their relationship turn volatile.

“I knew deep down that it was wrong, and that it wasn’t OK and it wasn’t healthy and that I was better than that,” she said.

“Because I had grown up in a really volatile environment, and I was constantly walking on eggshells, I was constantly thinking, ‘If I do this or that, things will get better.’ But they didn’t, so I left.

“I didn’t want to be seen as another statistic, you know? A single, young, Indigenous mother who was homeless.

“I always wanted to just be the person who ‘made it’ within my family, because [in] my family it’s [been] broken relationships, and addiction and homelessness and incarceration. And I didn’t want that.

“Even when I did leave, I was very specific about the things that I told people. I made sure it was just enough information that they would help to get me out, but I wouldn’t overexpose myself for fear of what would happen, or in case my child was removed.

“I’ve always been very straightforward with everything. But when I was going through that, nobody knew what was going on.”

Their move was so last-minute, Ms Henaway didn’t have time to pack.

“I got a call saying, ‘You’ve got a place’ and I had to just move straight away. I left a lot of things behind,” she said.

Ms Henaway and her son are now in permanent housing, but it took six months to arrange – three months in crisis accommodation followed by another three months in accommodation provided by Anglicare Southern Queensland.

She says she is one of the lucky ones because they avoided being placed in a hostel by the Department of Housing.

Carol Birrell, service manager of Anglicare Southern Queensland’s Homelessness Services, agreed that one of the side-effects of being in crisis accommodation was that clients were housed more quickly.

“Had she been couch-surfing, she wouldn’t have been as a high a priority, that’s the difference,” Ms Birrell said.

“People don’t think it [homelessness] will ever happen to them or that most people experiencing homelessness have drug and alcohol addiction – wrong!

“Or that if you are experiencing homelessness that you must have done something to deserve it. Absolutely wrong.

“More than 85 per cent of women experiencing homelessness have experienced significant trauma, which results in disempowerment. We work alongside women to empower them, which is essential in providing them with choice to take control in rebuilding their lives.

“Our service provides accommodation and support for women over 18, and young women who are pregnant or parenting.

“We initially provide temporary accommodation and support at our residential facility and then through our properties in the community while they are waiting for an offer from public or community housing, as affordable housing and private rental are generally out of reach for the women and families we support.

“Traumatic situations are often disempowering and homelessness can be also disempowering. It is essential that choice and control is a significant factor in helping to rebuild lives."

“For Anglicare, this involves being predictable, consistent and reliable with service delivery to support people to create safety and trust.”

Ms Henaway said her life has turned around to the point she wants to devote her career to helping others and championing the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“When I was 20, I went back to a flexible school learning centre and took my son with me, every day for 18 months. They mind your children while you finish off year 11 and 12.”

Empowered by her graduation from school, Ms Henaway said she was inspired to study a bachelor of social work at Queensland University of Technology and use her new-found skills, empathy and street smarts to help others in her situation.

“I feel like I’ve lived a thousand lives, honestly. I’ve been through so much in my life,” she said.

“It’s been a long hard slog to get here, but all going to plan, I will graduate as a social worker in four years’ time.”