A group of students and citizens spent last Saturday night sleeping outside the St Clement’s churchyard to raise awareness about homelessness in Oxford.
Andrew Smith of Gatehouse, one of the homelessness charities organising the event, said, “One of the great things about the sleep-out is that it is several of the different agencies working with homeless people that come together”. He pointed out that they already had “about 100 people and its only half past eleven”.
The event has been running for over a decade, and they have raised an estimated £200,000 altogether for the homeless in Oxford.
Smith commented, “Oxford has the worst homeless problem outside London for a city of its size.” He pointed out that while the practical things students could do such as buying the big issue were important, the everyday attitude we have towards the homeless makes a difference. “In a day-to-day way, the thing is really not to pass on by and ignore people…the main thing is to acknowledge that they are there, and talk to them, listen to them, and find out what their situation is.”
Oxford students were present among the sleepers, with contingents from University College, Keble, St. Anne’s and St. John’s huddling together in the chilly churchyard.
Marc Kusicka, a John’s student helping to organise the event, said that the evening was “a great opportunity to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness in oxford…hopefully it will raise a lot of money which is really needed for the shelters to provide more food, because food things aren’t funded by the council.”
Claire Wright, a University College student argued, “The problem is much more complex than people will admit…often homeless people have the ability to generate a reasonable amount of money for themselves, but they need people to come alongside them and help them make really good decisions about how they are going to use that money.”
She added, “It’s not just about giving loads of people money, but creating the right structures for support.”
Kusicka and Wright volunteer through OHCV, the section of OxHub which facilitates the establishment of local volunteering projects. Kusicka estimates that there are currently between 20/30 students involved with the project, who volunteer at soup kitchens, and help out at The Gap with classes and activities.
Steve Johnson, who has been sleeping rough since 1996, emphasised the importance of these projects. “The Gatehouse and the soup buns are the most important things going for homeless people because they can get fed there, they can get a pair of clean clothes there, they can get a shower there, and these are the most important things to a homeless person.”
He added, “We go there, and we’ve got a lot of respect for the volunteers – it’s a family.”
Members of the RAF were also in attendance, with 11 representatives from Brize Norton among the sleepers. SAC Diana Walls, Air Movement Squadron explained, “We started reading up on it, and realised that 6% of rough sleepers in the Oxfordshire area are ex-military…so we thought we would jump on it, get amongst them, show our support.
“It’s quite sad to see fellow members of the air force, so we would like to be here to show our support for them.”
Wallis was not worried about the cold, pointing out that “we’ve been in rougher conditions than this.”
Several Oxford Brookes students at the event set up a “base camp” in the churchyard. One student commented, “They say it’s a tale of two cities – as students we run around having fun, going to the library, and then there’s this total other world, and if you don’t look, you don’t see it.”
Keziah, a gap year student added, “It’s an eye-opener, because I’ve been cold before, but I’ve always had the opportunity to go home and get warm…it puts it in perspective, in a very toe-numbing kind of way.”
