My Experience at the Big Sleepout
Claremont Fan student and Rentstart volunteer Milo shares his experience from the Big Sleepout
Living homeless in todays world is perhaps one of the toughest situations a person can be in, living on the edge of society as the world changes and shifts around you whilst in stasis. This reality is impossible to capture, however at the Rentstart Sleepout the similarities were enough to create a sense of what sleeping rough is really like.
The evening itself was alive with the buzz of talking as we all set up cardboard homes for the night, designing the most creative homes possible with the materials that were available and by the end of an hour our tunnel had become a brightly lit maze of cardboard and sleeping bags. Chatting with friends and laughing all in the space of this miniature world that we had created over a meal of fresh pizza and plenty of coffee. Throughout the night the mood heightened with live performances ranging from song remixes to dramatic performances and as the evening went on everything seemed fine, it was warm and we all were too stuffed on pizza to worry about the outside world. Eventually we all got into our makeshift homes at midnight, this was when the night took a sharp turn into the brutal reality of being homeless. We were read out a short letter written by one of Rentstarts clients as he detailed the turbulent life of sleeping on benches and being forced to take food from private allotments just to get by. These words were swiftly followed with the music turning off and the lights all going out as we were left alone, lying on thin pieces of cardboard with blankets and sleeping bags being our only protection from the cold.
As I lay there in the night I couldn’t help but think of how people are doing this everyday and that our situation in comparison was simple. We were spending the night in the safe confines of a school surrounded by friends and safeguarding laws with the most important thing on our minds likely being how best we are going to relax over the half term. When I woke up to blaring music and the tired moans of 20 other teenagers I found myself outside of my sleeping bag, my pillow nowhere near my head and a pain in my shoulder and back wondering how much sleep I had got, I surely hadn’t had much considering I was dying just to get back to sleep again in my warm bed at home, enriched by the experience of never having to go through it again.
Going through all of that in just one night compared to having to sleep like that every night of my life not knowing what challenges the next day will bring seemed impossible to imagine just a few hours before yet as I got back home, to my room and to my bed it dawned on me that I would likely never forget my rough night at the Big Sleepout.
When I signed up for the Sleepout I wanted to do it to try and raise awareness of the homeless community within Elmbridge and the wider country where it has become a highly prevalent issue within recent years and one that often goes unnoticed. Living in such an affluent community in one of the richest areas of the country has meant that we often don’t see what is going on every day around us, homelessness in this area is growing at a rapid rate and now more than ever people are struggling to buy even basic commodities let alone a house.
This experience was incredibly powerful having to see through the eyes of others for a night to glimpse a few of the hundreds of issues that homeless people have to experience on a daily basis. Having spoken to my friends we all agreed that this has been an eye opening experience that has changed our worldviews to the better and that we would all hasten to take part again. By participating in the Sleepout you don’t just gain a new outlook on life you are also directly helping to combat homelessness in your area with ourselves raising just shy of £6000, money that could change upwards of 10 homeless peoples lives for the better. This is why I took part in this event and I encourage you to do so to.