As a child without a permanent home, it is easy to become "another statistic lost in the system".

Josie Griffiths spoke to Ella Turner, a young woman whose upbringing in Bexley and Kent was blighted by difficulties and displacement.

 

"What I saw when I looked out of the window still haunts me to this day," 20-year-old Ella said as she recalled her worst memory.

The former Slade Green resident experienced 10 years of homelessness after her family was evicted from its Sheppey Close home, owned by Orbit housing association, when she was nine.

Despite having five years out of education, Ella managed to complete school, train as a fashion designer at college, and get into university.

"I am not one of those to dwell on past negativities," she said, as she focuses on her ambition to be a writer and the flat she proudly rents in Crystal Palace.

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Ella Turner 20, Ronnie 13, Layla Turner 27 and Ollie Turner 4

But with the recent revelation that 932 children were living in temporary accommodation in Bexley at the end of last year, old traumas were brought up.

Ella was one of six children aged two to 18 living with a single mum when they were made homeless, after a neighbour made it her mission to get them evicted.

She succeeded with a petition, which Ella says was proven to be "false" and "fraudulent", with forged signatures from neighbours.

"We had to build our lives up again. It’s traumatising for a child to move to an area so far away."

They boarded a bus to Gravesend, and were later moved on three times within the space of a few months to Welling, Charlton and Catford.

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They lived off donations from Samaritans and it was at Waters Road in Catford, on Halloween when Ella was 10, that "something awful happened".

She said: "The estate was so rough. We experienced a racist attack because we were the only white family in the entire community.

"The house was stormed. It was fireworks and shouting. It was crazy.

"Everywhere I looked and as far as I could see there were men forming a sort of enclosure around the house we were in, like animals in captivity.

"I think we moved the next day. We went to Spain."

In Ella’s eyes, people do not realise the long term problems that accompany child homelessness.

"It’s the education, I did not go to school until Year 10. Before that I was in primary school every day.

"Education’s a basic human right. We got into schools and then I would have to leave. I was starting two new schools in a month."

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She added: "I was in temporary accommodation until I was 14. I cannot say how many times we had moved."

They were housed permanently in Dartford in 2008, by which point Ella’s mum was drinking heavily and she soon left home, seeking refuge with her boyfriend at the time.

When she was 17 she moved in with one of her sisters, before ending up sofa surfing with friends.

"For me the homelessness never stopped," she said.

"I worked part-time to ensure I finished college and got myself as much education as possible to make up for what I had lost."

Happily, Ella later reconciled with her mum, and left university to pursue a career in writing.

Ella now has a successful blog.