A Derby woman who has gone from a “Ferrari lifestyle” with a £250k salary has praised Derventio Housing Trust for saving her after losing it all and ending up on the streets.
Amber Low, 45, has said she is living proof that no-one is immune from losing everything after going from having everything money could buy to being forced to sleep rough in Derby city centre.
Amber said she could not praise Derventio Housing Trust enough after housing and support officer Carla Parkin came and found her sleeping rough and provided accommodation in Derby in which Amber is now safely installed and busy hunting for work. She said:
Carla came and saved my life. She literally picked me up and brought me here. I think the world of that lady.
Born in York to a forces family and educated in a smart boarding school in the south of England, Amber has spent most of her career abroad in Abu Dhabi, where she was working for an oil and gas company as an analyst.
It was a job that saw Amber living the high life, she explained.
On a £250,000 salary it meant I could afford to go to concerts, I could fly back to the UK. I had my own boat – the good life for me was being able to afford that.
Caring Amber was also looking after family back home using her high earnings: paying her dad’s bills after he suffered a massive heart attack, and helping out friends who were struggling through the economic downturn.
But then things went wrong for Amber when she was made redundant through a company merger, her Visa expired, and she came back home.
But after 22 years abroad, and moving her father out with her after finding him a job too, Amber had no home to turn to and ended up living in temporary accommodation in the UK for seven months, thinking she would be able to find a job, but the money finally ran out and she ended up on the streets of Derby, surrounded by suitcases and unsure of what to do next.
I lost my job not for doing it badly but through politics. When I was forced on to the streets I was any combination of hurt, upset, scared and angry. I wondered how on earth I’d got there.
But now Amber has been provided with accommodation by Derventio Housing Trust she said things are looking better again and she is busy sending out job applications in the hopes of gaining a secure financial footing again in the UK. She said:
I think finding Derventio Housing Trust is the best thing that’s ever happened to me since I have come back to the UK. I love going down to their Growing Lives project in Ilkeston. I’ve made some nice friends there.
When I came back to the UK, it was like being a stranger in my own country. There wasn’t a guide for me as to how to live here. I was focused on the wrong things. But living in Derby now is like heaven. I don’t have any friends over here but I now when I go down to Derventio Housing Trust I can talk to people. I’ve met some lovely people here.
It just shows that this can happen to anybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re a cleaner or if you’re a managing director. If you’re so used to the big pay club, you’ve got the big house, the big gas guzzling machine – you pay for the lifestyle.
I’d like to thank Carla from Derventio for everything – she saved me. Derventio Housing Trust believes in people. It’s absolutely fantastic.