“We’re all one bad day away from being homeless” Student Volunteer Ambassador Sarah (BSc in International Relations, 2024) writes about homelessness, a under looked form of hidden homelessness and her recent fundraising for the Streets of London Annual Sleep Out Event
“We’re all one bad day away from being homeless” words I think are extremely important. Growing up in London homelessness has always been extremely visible to me. However, it was not until my mid-teens that I started to understand how extremely close the circumstances were to me and everyone.
When I was 15, I started to watch videos from a YouTube channel named ‘Invisible people’ The YouTube channel documents the unheard stories of people who are homeless around the world.
The channel demonstrated so clearly how all it takes is one bad day – some completely unseen circumstances to become homeless.
The stories from the YouTube videos gave me a first-hand account of how varied and unexpected the route to homelessness could be. Additionally, how extremely hard of a situation it is to get out of.
It made me realise how easy it is to view the distance between you and someone else who is homeless. It showed me how wrong that perception was. It also made me aware of how embedded misperceptions are even with the rhetoric surrounding homelessness. People are grouped as ‘homeless people’ giving a perception in which homelessness is a characteristic rather than a situation a person can find themselves in.
In 2021 research from Shelter found that 1 in 53 Londoners are homeless. However, this statistic does not count the many people who are hidden homeless. Hidden homeless refers to a situation in which people might not be on the streets but still living with immense insecurity regarding their housing. This is important as there is another misperception to view homelessness as someone living on the street, but this is not always the case. This type of homelessness can leave people with fewer resources as they might not be entitled to governmental support. This misperception has caused a minimisation of just how prevalent issues with insecure housing are in the capital. It is estimated that there are 13 times more people who are hidden homeless compared to being visibly homeless.
One day I came across a volunteering opportunity – the Streets of London’s Fifth Annual sleep. I signed up, made my just-giving page, and started to inform some of my friends. So, on the 7th of October, I made my way to the venue. I went by myself but was warmly greeted by multiple other volunteers. This made me think about the huge discrepancy between what I was doing and the experience of being homeless. This warm greeting is extremely contrary to what many people who are homeless experience. The statistics of the treatment are horrendous. According to research conducted by Crisis, 1 in 3 have been purposely kicked, 1 in 3 have had things thrown at them, and more than half have been verbally abused.
Furthermore, my experience was completely different from what people who are hidden homeless often experience. I felt appreciated and compassion by other volunteers, many people who experience hidden homelessness through sofa surfing report poor mental health often feeling like a burden according to research by the London Assembly.
I was able to raise £300. This was more than my set goal of £250. During the sleep-out event, I was informed of all the schemes the donations would be going to, some of the schemes included digital inclusion, specialist migrant support, and addiction recovery.
Taking part in the event made me think very deeply about my privileges as a student who after the event was able to come back to a warm room in my accommodation. I urge all students to think about this as well. I hope to continue volunteering towards combating homelessness in the capital and I look forward to participating in the next annual sleepout – I hope more LSE students will be able to join me.
St Mungo’s are hosting a seminar on Monday 7 November focussed on ways in which you can volunteer to support with homelessness, you can sign up on CareerHub.
If Sarah has inspired you to volunteer, check out one of our other ongoing opportunities or book a one-to-one with David Coles, the Volunteer Centre Manager if you have more questions. And why not follow us on Twitter, and Instagram to stay up-to-date with our events and opportunities and read our blog for more volunteering tips and stories.
