Back in September I did a sleep out to raise money for All People All Places, a local homeless project that is using churches as a winter night shelter. About 40 people from the local area joined together to do this.
I had no idea what to expect. It was a surprisingly warm night, (I was colder in a tent during Momentum in August!) I'd already had a small debate with a colleague who had planned on bringing his airbed! I wanted to make this experience for me as realistic as possible, but obviously we had good conditions in comparison to those who face life on the streets days after day. I have volunteered to help with the night shelter on the evening it is at my church each week, so I wanted to be able to remotely empathize with the people who would be walking through the doors seeking a safe and warm place to sleep.
I turned up already in my PJ bottoms and a hoodie. I had my sleeping bag, a ground sheet (which was shorter than me, so I put the overhanging end of my sleeping bag inside a bin liner!!), I had a hat, a scarf and a tiny pillow. I didn't need the scarf, so I put that and the pillow inside a bag and put it under my head. It made me think about how vulnerable you are living on the streets when it comes to your personal property. I wore old boots, as these would have been the only thing someone could have potentially easily stolen while I was sleeping!
We set our beds up on the Library Green in Enfield Town. There were seven of us from church doing this together. We didn't try and go to sleep right away, we spend a lot of time chatting as a group. Even though the area is open on all sides, there were stewards wandering around for the whole night. It is at a quieter end of the town centre where pub revelers staggering home on a Friday night wouldn't have passed. There was a portaloo, for our convenience!
These measures were obviously linked to a load of health and safety guidelines, but it wasn't fully representative of what people living on the streets have to face every night. It took me a long time to drift off to sleep, the only disturbance were cars and buses driving past. I was shocked at how comfy I was laying on the wet grass. Rain was due around 5am, but I decided to not sleep under an umbrella like some people did. When I did wake up in the night (needing the chemical facility!), I felt at ease as I was surrounded by all of my sleeping/snoring friends.
I went back to sleep easily, and considering I am a very light sleeper, I was woken (with a torch in my eyes!!) by the stewards moving us on around 5am! I only had about 4 hours sleep. A breakfast of egg and bacon rolls were put on for us back at church. (a great team of people got up early to make this for us all). The rain had held off, and while we were eating our breakfast a storm passed over head. I was grateful that it had stayed dry for us.
I then headed back to my warm dry flat and went to bed to catch up on sleep, fully appreciating that this is not the cosy reality for so many people. The main sad irony from the whole experience is that the actual homeless people in our area (of which we hardly see in an obvious way) were probably seeking shelter in the bus depot opposite where our safe sleep out was taking place.
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