A "couple of winters ago", just before Christmas, William Mulholland decided to smash the windows of the McDonald's fast food restaurant in Belfast city centre.
Its fluorescent light and warmth had been a lifeline to him during miserably cold and dangerous weeks on the streets, providing a safe place to use the toilet and "get a coffee to bring myself round with whatever money I had got during the night".
But, now faced with the loss of a meagre temporary `home' which he had managed to find, sabotaging that lifeline seemed like his only option.
"I was living in a shed up the Ormeau Road with my friend. There was snow on the ground," recalls the 39-year-old, originally from the Shankill area of west Belfast.
"We left the shed at six o'clock in the morning and when we went beck to sleep in it that night whoever owned it had locked it up and we couldn't get in.
"I said to my friend, I'm going to do a crime to get into prison."
To William, a diagnosed schizophrenic with a chronic alcohol addiction, it was a logical solution to an unbearable situation.
Keeping a roof overhead is particularly complex for people like him, whose addiction and mental health issues make it hard to manage the admin of life and often result in persistent offending - usually opportunistic robbery and sporadic violence.
The traditional `step up' approach - where the rough sleeper achieves certain goals, such as sobriety, until they are deemed ready for a home - is typically unsuccessful for many in this group.
However, the Housing First concept, pioneered in Northern Ireland by Depaul, manages to keep between 75-90 per cent from returning to the street.
As the name suggests, a home is provided first and then a wrap-around support service kicks in to help people manage their tenancy.
New funding from the Housing Executive this winter to expand the charity's work finds them optimistic that the north is one step closer to a regional Housing First roll-out under a central director.
"The street's a bad, bad place," William tells The Irish News from his flat at Sydenham in east Belfast.
"The streets are the things of nightmares. I went back to prison a few times just to get me off the street."
He recounts being threatened at knife and gun point on several occasions, being beaten with vodka bottle, and having his head stamped on until he was unconscious.
He ended up in intensive care more than once with bleeds to the brain - all for the small change he collected "begging" from shoppers during the day.
"I'm a big lad, I'm 6' 2'' and 18 stone, but it scared me, so it did.
"I used to sleep in the alleyway at the back of McDonald's because there were black gates there and I thought anyone coming through the gates would have to open them and wake me so I could get away.
"I used to pray at night that I wouldn't wake up. You get so sore trying to sleep with no sleeping bag, just your coat."
The father-of-four became a street sleeper after "being put out of my place for partying".
The relationship with the mother of his children had broken down and his drinking escalated as a means, he says, "of self-medicating" his mental illness.
He is proud that he never succumbed to heroin or crack cocaine during his darkest periods, but drinking, untreated schizophrenia and a chaotic life on the street culminated in a litany of petty crime, vandalism and - on at least one occasion - assault.
William gained some local notoriety after being prosecuted for smashing an antique candelabra and throwing candles at door staff of the five-star Merchant hotel, telling the judge at the time that his actions were fuelled by unwittingly smoking cannabis.
Memories of the period of street homelessness remain jumbled together. He recounts his experiences at breakneck speed - "I'm sorry if I'm speaking to fast" - one horror slipping into another.
One thing remains clear in William's mind - the belief he saved his own life with that final Christmas act of vandalism.
It was during the resulting stint in prison that he connected with an outreach worker from Depaul who changed everything by offering him the home he has managed to maintain for around three years.
The charity has been running Housing First since 2013, last year supporting 38 people in Belfast and 35 in Derry.
New funding, which came last month, will allow 20 more to be added to that list, with six extra already benefitting.
Dermot Murphy, director of services and development, says the cohort identified by the Housing Executive for the latest places are "very similar to what we see".
"We're specifically working with the most complex and entrenched cases.
"William is such a success, but he's not alone. They are all Williams in some way or shape or form.
"We are very, very lucky with the staff team we have. They work tirelessly to achieve the outcomes and ensure the wrap-around services are there."
For William those services include a Home Care team who "have my bank card to help me manage my money - before I was blowing it all in a few days".
That means, although he still "has a drink with my friend", he remains up-to-date with rent and other bills ensuring he has a safe place to sleep every night.
"I have a choice to get a bath when I want to get a bath, to get something to eat when I want something to eat. I've always got electricity and heating and food in my fridge."
The Depaul director said it hopes the latest funding can be the first stage of a roll-out to take in other parts of the north, citing Dungannon and Newry as starting points.
"The best way to do that would be to have a regional director working on a statutory footing."
He believes it is time for Northern Ireland to move to a model where "homelessness always is a housing-led solution".
"It is one of the best price models, particularly for those working with mental health issues and addiction issues.
"It is very clear that Housing First is part of the solution and you can see the clear long term benefits of it. This is showing how we might expand it."
Meanwhile, Christmas for William this year will be dinner at his sister's house and maybe a little paying it forward too.
"I would like to get myself in order and maybe make a few sandwiches and me and my friend will maybe go into the town and hand them out, because people will be hungry."
