On September 24th 2010 I spent one night sleeping outside to gain an understanding of what’s it’s like to be homeless. It was horrible.
The sleep out was a sponsored event to raise money for Urban Vision, a charity I support that provides skills training and visible needs support to homeless people living in the centre of Johannesburg. I got to His People’s Church in Parktown North around 6pm, when it was already dark and getting chilly, to help out with some of the set up. By 7.30pm, most of the participants had arrived (around 50 in total) with their sleeping bags and I’m rather sad to say that I was the only white person taking part. After some activities which included building (or rather attempting to build) an overnight shelter out of wood, bricks and plastic sheeting, I went in pursuit of sleep at around midnight. My bed consisted of a flattened cardboard box, one of Jane the dog’s blankets and a sleeping bag, in which I was fully clothed with the addition of a wooly hat, gloves and shoes! Aside from the fact that there was copious amounts of talking, it was impossible to sleep. I couldn’t get comfortable on the cardboard, I was cold, hungry and the light from street lamp was disturbing as was the sound of traffic driving past. We were shut in the church car park, so were saved the added discomfort of worrying about being robbed or harassed by the Police which is a daily occurrence for people sleeping rough. Climbing into the car to sleep was a very tempting thought but it wouldn’t have made the experience very authentic, so I stuck with tossing and turning on the cardboard until about 6.30am when I decided to head home (lucky me that I have a home to go to).
I have to say that it was the worst night’s sleep I think I’ve ever had and it was absolute bliss getting into my bed when I got back to the house. Sleeping outside for the night was an awful experience and I felt very angry afterwards, not because of the discomfort (although that did make me very grumpy) but for all the people who have no option other than to sleep on a piece of cardboard every night. What happens when it rains? What happens when you have no blankets? What happens if you have a child to take care of too? Food for thought as you climb into bed tonight.