From exploitative subletting to a helping role – Edit’s story

The housing crisis is systemic, but its impact can best be understood through individual lives. That is why we launched our Role Model series as part of our 1% tax donation campaign: to share the stories of people who became victims of an inadequate social support system, yet still found the strength not only to escape homelessness, but also to help and inspire others along the way. The beautiful portraits in the series were taken by Chripkó Lili. Like so many others, Varga Jánosné Edit grew up in state care, and the fact that she never had anyone to turn to for help played a major role in her becoming homeless later in life. 

Who ends up pushed to the margins of society — and who becomes homeless — is not random. After enduring countless hardships, Edit, a tenant of , lost not only her home but also her leg. Through extraordinary perseverance, she fought her way forward, and today she is able to support her family and others with her wisdom and lived experience — because she herself was once given a chance to rebuild her life. Edit’s story, which she bravely shared earlier in the book Paths in the Forest, shows how much society loses when even people with such strength and ability cannot receive adequate support from the social care system.

Edit comes from one of the poorest regions of Hungary, in the east of the country. She was born in Berettyóújfalu, but she has no ties left there. From the age of one, she grew up in state care. She has painful memories of that time: she experienced a great deal of abuse in the children’s home, yet because of her strong sense of justice — visible even at a young age — she often stood up for other children who were being mistreated. As a result, she frequently found herself in conflict with both the children and the staff, and she never felt she belonged there. At sixteen, she became legally independent through marriage, which meant there was no way back into child protection services. Like many others, she believed that any family situation would be better than institutional care. As a consequence, continuing her education was no longer an option. Her husband’s family immediately sent her to work, and she had to hand over all of her earnings. Before even turning seventeen, she was already working in a paper factory. She spent nearly fifteen years there and, for the first time in her life, experienced what it meant to belong to a supportive community. 

At the same time, however, she was forced to give all of her income to the household and was unable to save anything for herself. After the birth of her first child, her husband became abusive, and after years of conflict, his family threw her out onto the street, leaving her alone with her son. With nowhere else to go, she remarried quickly and moved in with her second husband’s family. Like many women living in financial vulnerability, Edit was only able to avoid homelessness through intimate relationships — a situation that made her deeply dependent on abusive partners. Her second husband and his family also subjected her to severe abuse, which she endured for many years so she would not be separated from her children. 

By this time, she had developed a serious illness. Following an infected insect bite, doctors were unable to control the resulting infections, and during examinations she was diagnosed with an immune disorder and thrombophilia. Both of her legs developed severe ulcers, and over the years she spent many months in hospitals. Because of her prolonged medical treatments, guardianship of her younger children was given to her mother-in-law, while her eldest son from her first marriage was placed into institutional care. This was the most painful loss of all. After leaving the hospital, she did not return to her family but entered the homeless care system as a thirty-year-old mother of three. Her ordeal continued when, as a consequence of her illnesses, one of her legs had to be amputated in 2011. As a wheelchair user, finding a place even within homeless services became even more difficult. She was also admitted to psychiatric care, where she received strong medication, antidepressants and painkillers. It took years for her to stop relying on these substances — something she managed with the support of her partner, Sanyi. 

Today, Edit is over fifty years old. She spent more than a decade moving through different institutions within the homeless care system, never finding a real way out. Throughout this entire period, she remained close to her eldest son and continued trying to reconnect with her younger children, who had been raised by her mother-in-law. They still maintain contact today, and she continues to support them beyond the limits of her own strength. 

Edit met her partner Sanyi at a shelter run by the Baptist Charity Service. Over the past fifteen years, their bond has proven unbreakable. Since getting together, they have lived in workers’ hostels, on the street, and in homeless shelters — their main priority always being to stay together. Sanyi cared for Edit after her amputation and hospital treatments, and still does whenever necessary. Edit, in turn, supports Sanyi by helping him manage his diabetes and by providing stability through everyday household care.

Sanyi himself had also spent most of his life alone. He worked in construction, as a security guard, and in any field where he had to rely solely on his own strength. He has always been capable of doing the work of two people, and it was thanks to this determination that they eventually managed to move from shelters into a rented apartment. That apartment, however, soon turned out to be exploitative subletting: they were forced to pay more and more money for increasingly poor conditions, eventually ending up in an outbuilding that Edit could barely even leave in her wheelchair. 

When they won one of ULE’s housing applications, Edit moved into an independent home for the first time in her life — already well past the age of forty. During the first years, even the simple act of being able to close her own front door brought her joy. Since then, she has found enormous strength in the fact that her life has improved: she has become the primary support system for her son and grandson. Thanks to the help she provided to her son and daughter-in-law, they managed to prevent their own children from ending up in state care, as Edit and her son once had. She was the one who submitted their housing application and helped them navigate the administrative process. If she could not raise her son properly during his childhood, she seized the opportunity to help him and his family have a better start in adulthood. But she also helps many others. By sharing her extraordinary story, Edit has become an important member of the ULE community, helping people better understand the harsh realities of homelessness and the systemic failures that make these lives even harder.

Edit’s story clearly shows that even people with immense strength and determination still need support. With dignified housing and intensive social work, our clients truly can begin new lives. To help more people like Edit, we need your support. Please consider donating 1% of your income tax to us, and help spread the word about our work.