As a teenager he was sleeping in a park and trying to wash his clothes in a river so he would be clean for school.
Matthew Cox was one of too many children who did not get adequate help soon enough, Future Generations Commissioner Sophie Howe has said.
She wants the education system and agencies working closer on adverse childhood experiences (ACE).
Mr Cox, now 22, works in a call centre and dreams of starting his own landscape gardening company.
It is an amazing turnaround for a man who said bullying throughout his childhood affected his behaviour and ended with him sleeping rough while still in school.
"While living on the streets in Pontypridd park I was trying to get a bit of cash myself, trying to find a job," he said.
[For more of this story, written by Caroline Evans, go to http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-40018684]
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