On Friday 4th August, along with fellow students, I was lucky enough to be a part of the 2017 Anglicare Sleep Out at NIB Stadium, where I spent the night experiencing some of the challenges homeless youth experience on a daily basis. We began our evening by travelling to the stadium via the train where we received the strangest of looks from the public as we were all wearing layers upon layers of clothing and carrying huge sleeping bags and looking extremely stressed while walking through the underground station.
Once we arrived at the stadium we were given lanyards and name tags and a small introduction to Anglicare, the organisers of the event. The lanyard had an identity of someone who was homeless and we had to adopt their persona in order to complete a number of activities. My ‘identity’ was Mark Reynolds, who is a 17 year old boy who had been sent from his family home.
We joined groups from other schools and completed a number of activities such as applying for Centrelink, getting identification, finding shelter, a place to eat such as getting food stamps or the soup kitchen and even going to the job centre. It was nearly impossible to get enough stamps to fill the sheet. The group I was in was lucky enough to get three stamps. In real life one is lucky to even get one of those things. The activity was very powerful as when there was something wrong with our application we had to complete another one, often having it denied and making you want to give up.
Something that really affected us was listening to the Street Connect workers who explained that the processes we went through are a daily occurrence and more often than not people are denied vital things. Lyn said “They take one step forward but three steps back”. We learned that there was a backlog of people waiting for an application and the resources were constantly running out so we couldn’t receive a food stamp, something that happens far too often in real life.
The Street Connect workers told us that shelter was especially hard to find, especially somewhere where you can sleep and have access to toilets. If you are lucky enough to receive crisis accommodation you are even luckier to have access to food and social workers. There are over ten thousand homeless people in Western Australia with only just over 1000 beds to cater to them, so many people have to turn to the streets where they have an isolated and cold night.
Later in the evening we set up our campsite for the night and lined up for a soup kitchen meal which was warm and delicious. We stayed up chatting and making friends with the security guards. Although we might not have been that good friends as they decided to move our group for breaching private property laws or displaying ‘antisocial behaviour’ which was definitely a lie as we were the loudest group there. This meant we had to pack up all our belongings and move to a completely different spot, from a place where we had grown accustomed to. There were also times throughout the night where gates were slammed, lights were shone in our faces and sirens blared throughout the stadium.
This was such an amazing experience and we were lucky enough to raise over $9000, with most of us beating our goal total of fundraising. My eyes were opened by this experience and the money that we did raise is going to such an amazing cause and it is definitely going to good use. As a group we have realised how privileged we all are and the strength it takes to survive on the streets. Something as simple as a blanket was taken for granted whereas many people don’t have the same opportunity.
Written by Hannah Kelly (Year 12)