Learning what it's like to be homeless in Oxford (From Oxford Mail)

Learning what it's like to be homeless in Oxford

10:00am Monday 21st November 2011 in News

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ARMED with hot drinks and sleeping bags, about 30 volunteers spent a night out in the cold air to raise cash for an Oxford homeless charity.

The annual Oxford Homeless Pathways fundraiser was held on Saturday night at St Clements Churchyard.

Trainee vicar Alice Whalley, of St Stephen’s House theological college in Marston Street, said: “Working with the homeless is a big part of what the church does so it was really important for us to understand what it is like to sleep outside, especially at this time of year.”

Alice, pictured left with Thomas Gilligan, of Worcester College, said she got about five hours sleep, adding: “It was all right until about three o’clock in the morning when the mist descended and it got very cold and damp.”

A group of seven from the college raised about £1,200.

Lord Mayor Elise Benjamin also joined in the event and said: “It was OK if you have enough layers.

“But I can’t imagine how soul destroying it must be to do it every night.”