Fundraisers to sleep outside for Telford homeless charity

The Stay Out will take place on the Telford Shopping Centre’s Red Oak Car Park from 7pm this evening through to 6am tomorrow morning.

The Stay Out is an annual event put on by Stay who provide housing and support to vulnerable homeless young people in the area. This year they will be joined by volunteers from other organisations that support the homeless including the YMCA, KiP and Maninplace.

Next week will see the start of the Bleak Mid Winter Project 2013 which provides short term accommodation for people that are sleeping rough during the coldest months of the year . Since 2011, there has been a 65% increase in people presenting themselves as homeless to the Bleak Mid Winter project. In 2012/13, the Bleak Mid Winter project, prevented 100 people from sleeping rough in the borough.

Telford & Wrekin Council’s count for rough sleepers continues to increase each year with eleven people found to be rough sleeping in the borough on 21 November 2012 compared with two in 2010.

During 2012/13, Stay supported 225 young people across its range of services including Houses in Multiple Occupation, self-contained flats and floating support. The figures represent a 6% increase on the previous year.

Chief Executive of Stay, John Green, Says:

‘The Stay Out provides a great visual and real experience of homelessness. The reality is that rough sleeping in just the tip of the iceberg. Homelessness comes in many forms. Our experience in Telford is that the young people we work with may have been sofa surfing – grabbing sleep on friends’ sofas; squatting or staying in temporary accommodation.

“There are many misperceptions too of why people become homeless. The stereotypical view of what homelessness looks like could not be further away from the reality. Many of our clients become homeless because of family conflict, rent arrears caused by money problems, domestic violence or abuse, illegal eviction or harassment by a landlord, or even fire or flood.

“The young people we support are just like any young people we know. None of them choose to be homeless.

"We are thrilled with the support we have received for this year’s event. The Stay Out is a real challenge in November temperatures and, as last year proved, a number of participants don’t manage to sleep out for the whole night – it is just too difficult to accomplish.”

"The Stay Out 2013 is supported by volunteers from TCAT, Telford & Wrekin Council, Shropshire Community Project, Community Engagement Teams, TACT, TTC 2000, Community Substance Misuse Team, Bromford, Dyke Yaxley, Schneider Electric and many others. Support has been received from the Telford Shopping Centre, Telford & Wrekin Services Ltd, the Community Safety Partnership working alongside the Police & Crime Commissioner, Barclays and many others helping to make this event successful – the support has been amazing. Many people have done extremely well in raising sponsorship; including Cllr Shaun Davies who has reached his target of pledges and will therefore be joining us through the night."

Alongside those sleeping on the pavement will be a sofa representing the ‘hidden homeless’ who surf from one sofa to another avoiding sleeping on the streets but who are nevertheless, homeless.

To find out more about Stay visit www.staytelford.co.uk.