'What the Vinnies CEO Sleepout taught me about the reality of homelessness'

"We can only take women and children, leave your 13 year old son on the streets" is a sentence I hope I never hear again. 

Last night, 116,000 of our fellow Australians were experiencing homelessness. 

So, to raise awareness and funding, a group of corporates took part in the annual Vinnies CEO Sleepout in Sydney on Thursday night.

It's not so lucky for the real victims. The homelessness Vinnies is dealing with is at an unimaginable scale, with the 2016 Census showing increases between 30-50% in the numbers of homeless in various age groups. 

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The real stories we heard are devastating and they are happening right now.

There was Yvonne, the 60-year old grandmother whose daughters kicked her out of the home she had lived in all her life. The home where she and her now deceased husband had put a roof over their children and grandchildren for their entire lives. When he died, they kicked her out. How do you do that to the person who gave you life?

There was also Megan, who has a masters degree and is currently completing her PhD. When Megan first started searching for crisis accommodation, there was only space at a women and girls refuge, so it was suggested she leave her 13-year-old son on the streets. I can't even contemplate it.

Homelessness has many causes and it can happen to anyone, and if the CEO Sleepout has taught me one thing, it’s that homelessness doesn’t discriminate; circumstances you never anticipated can lead you there.

I’m enormously proud to have had the opportunity and ability to raise awareness for social issues, but let's also concede this: we did it as a team of eight. We had no dependants with us to worry about. If we had, we would have had 16 kids and two dogs alongside us.

In the leadup to last night I’d had broken sleep for about a week. My four-year-old son has been sick and scared of the wind and rain that has been hammering Sydney. I’d sarcastically commented to my husband that I was likely to get a better night's sleep at the Vinnies Sleepout, and while I did probably get more hours in total, it wasn’t the same quality.

Lying awake next to a cuddly little guy right beside me, keeping me warm and making beautiful little sounds while I watched his peaceful face in our own secure home, is a fair way from even the mildest of sleeping rough conditions we experienced.

The Vinnies CEO Sleepout is a wonderful cause, but the scale of the issue across Australia needs so much more.