Hello! 

We're Amy and Katie, two journalists and best friends. Our work means we spend  A LOT of time digging through data so to explain why we're spending the night, sleeping outside, to raise money for a variety of grassroots homeless charities (where the money goes directly to those who need it) we decided to let the statistics speak for themselves

Overall, it's estimated that around 227,000 people were experiencing the worst forms of homelessness - rough sleeping, sleeping in vans and sheds, stuck in B&Bs across England, Scotland and Wales in 2021 (but remember, homelessness is tough to quantify, as many people will slip through the net)

This number is on the rise - particularly in London - where the cost of living crisis has found the number of rough sleepers has increased by a quarter. If you live or work in central London then you only have to look around to see this for yourself. 

No-fault evictions are a leading driver of homelessness and since 2019 (when Westminster promised to ban them… still waiting…) almost 230,000 private renters have received a section 21 notice. That's one person every seven minutes being evicted from their home. Due to absolutely no fault of their own.

LGBT young people are disproportionately represented in the young homeless population. As many as 24% of young homeless people are LGBT and 69% of them experienced violence, abuse or rejection from their family home. 

The number of households being made homeless because they were fleeing domestic abuse has risen by more than a third in England, since the start of the pandemic (where there was a massive increase in domestic abuse) 

Homelessness is a huge blow to your mental and physical health. It can be incredibly hard to pull yourself back up and out of it - imagine having to face the day after zero to no sleep, with no access to shower facilities or clean clothes. 

It's a societal issue and ultimately so much needs to be done by the government to help. But we want to do whatever we can to help. The money raised by our CEO sleepout goes directly to smaller charities, across the country, that offer a range of services to help homeless people get the support they deserve. You can read about the breakdown here: https://ceosleepoutuk.com/where-the-money-goes/