// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
How mum joined ‘rising number of hidden homeless’ after fleeing with daughter
A charity says hidden homelessness is rising as rents go up
When Jodie and her daughter had to flee their hometown, they could only take what they could carry - two black bin bags filled with their belongings.
Jodie, then aged 30, found herself in Margate, Kent, with a seven-year-old child to take care of and no place to live.
"I had to leave everything," Jodie said. "The bags were mainly my daughter's clothes and her dolls."
Having left after feeling threatened, she chose the seaside town where they had been on summer and half term holidays, although it meant leaving her family and friends behind.
"I wanted to go somewhere that wasn't very alien for my daughter," said Jodie, now 42.
"It was still scary, but I had to be the strong one and protect her. I had to do it so that my daughter could have a life."
After a brief stay in council emergency accommodation, she said they spent a year sleeping on the sofas and floors of people she had met in Margate.
"You're honoured that they're giving you a roof over your head," Jodie continued. "But it wasn't nice. I didn't feel worthy as a mother - my child deserved stability and a roof over her head.
"It was also exhausting and confusing because I didn't know what our future was going to look like."