When our Green Chair of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Anita Jones, closed the last full council meeting she knew that a long and chilly night lay ahead.
Anita had the idea of sleeping out at the civic centre to raise awareness of the challenges homeless people face and to raise some money for the Rainbow Centre, who work alongside the council to support people experiencing homelessness locally. The sleep out has raised more than £2,000.
Anita was joined by two other members of our Green team running the district council, Leader Jim Martin and Cabinet member Polly Blakemore, along with Deputy Leader Tim Prater.
Anita said: “It was a cold and uncomfortable night, but it certainly gave me a greater understanding of what some people have to do every night. We all had plenty of layers and were warm enough, but also grateful we could pack up and go home when the birds woke us at 5.30am.”
Jim said: “We as a nation have a housing crisis happening all around us. The people we see on the street are the sharp end, the visible homeless. We have many more hovering just above the homelessness threshold, those sofa surfing between friends and family, those working for their lodgings and those staying in terrible domestic circumstances because there is nowhere to run.
“I wanted my night sleeping on cardboard to draw attention to the housing crisis and ask people, in this season of goodwill, to consider the Rainbow Centre and all the great work they do in keeping people off the street.”
Polly said: “As a council, we spend a lot of time talking about homelessness in theory but do any of us know what it means in practice? The sleep out was one tiny step towards finding out. After all, it’s relatively easy to spend a late-November night sleeping under the stars if you know you can go home to a warm house and a hot bath.”
There’s still time to contribute, here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/fhdc-chair-bigsleepout?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Ffhdc-chair-bigsleepout&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share
Councillor Anita Jones wraps up warm for a chilly night ahead.
