After a night sleeping rough in a cardboard box, I considered myself lucky. The absolutely worst part about the experience was fi nding out, after the rain came down heavily at 4.30 am, that soggy cardboard does not make a good duvet. But compared with all the things that threaten to disturb a homeless sleeper in the night – rats, thugs, police offi cers moving you on, other homeless people stealing your blankets – a downpour was the most bearable. SEARCH ► any city can “never properly be known”. It costs Simon on the Streets in the region of £2,000 a year to provide intensive support to one homeless person. The sleep-out raised £6,500. What’s more the night had been mild. As I bedded down in the early hours, I was grateful for my sheltered spot under a leafy tree at the back of the parish church in Leeds city centre. It seemed safe compared with a darkened alley or fi re escape: typical destinations for genuinely homeless people in any city in the UK. I was one of 50 people who had volunteered to take part in a sponsored sleep-out in September for Leeds-based homeless charity Simon on the Streets. It helps rough sleepers with an outreach-based service that provides a soup run, breakfast club, a peer support group and an intensive programme for people who are diffi cult to reach or who have slipped through the net. Simon on the Streets organised the sleep-out to raise awareness about homelessness in Leeds. Its director, Clive Sandle, puts the number of homeless people they deal with on a regular basis at between 50 and 100 but adds that the accurate number of rough sleepers in The night began at 10 pm. We gathered in Leeds City Square, and were taken on a walk around the city centre. Clive pointed out roughsleeping hotspots. One was where Simon on the Streets used to hold a soup run close to the city’s shopping hub. But the soup run was forced to stop after local residents complained to the council, having spent weeks making their feelings known directly by throwing fruit out of their windows. After the hour-long walk we settled at the church for the night with a polystyrene cup of hot vegetable soup from a soup kitchen. Then we were left to our own devices. The lowest point of the night was the early morning rain. However, despite the discomfort, my experience was but one night under soggy cardboard. We were all very aware that it was still a million miles removed from the genuine experience of people who have no other place to go but the streets
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