Loneliness and vulnerability were two unexpected feelings experienced by those who took part in First-Housing’s ‘Big Sleep Out’ for homelessness in Enniskillen last Friday night (December 13) from 6pm to 6am.

Taking place at the Diamond, eight people, including five staff members from First-Housing Enniskillen, the manager of Enniskillen Foodbank and two volunteers, braved the winter weather to raise awareness of homelessness in the county by spending a night on the streets. As they fundraised and chatted to members of the public about the cause, the team members also gained a brief personal insight into how difficult life can be as a homeless person.

“It wasn’t about trying to create an authentic homelessness experience but we learnt so much just about so many issues faced by people that are street homeless and so many other issues about people who are going round sofa surfing, that are sleeping in tents or cars, or out buildings,” shared Maria Thompson, co-ordinator for First-Housing Enniskillen who took part in the ‘Big Sleep Out’.

Aside from feeling cold and hungry, which they expected to experience during the night, Maria noted that they also experienced feelings of loneliness and vulnerability which took many of the team members by surprise.

“Just the vulnerability of someone who is homeless, the uncertainty of who’s about, who’s going to come over to you, will they be abusive to you, will they physically attack you, show you disrespect. It’s almost like you cease to be a human when you become homeless. You seem to be living life on a higher alert, because of your vulnerability, you are kind of very alert of what’s going on and it makes it easy to understand why substance abuse would be part of a homeless person’s experience because they are trying to self-medicate against the fears and the stresses of being homeless,” explained Maria.

She added: “Another thing we learned about was the loneliness. We lasted really well from about 6pm to 2am, there were loads of people about, there was shopping, there was partying, the town was busy, there was company but from 3am to 6am it was a very different experience, it got very, very cold, and we really felt quite lonely. We had each other to boost the moral and lift the spirits but if somebody was trying to deal with that on their own, that would be much more difficult.”

During the night, many of the team members experienced physical pain, another aspect of sleeping rough that they hadn’t considered before.

“We became aware of the physical pain, aches and pains because of the cold. Like when you are hunched up or your joints are uncomfortable because you are sitting in one position, you are staying out so long and you aren’t getting access to heat and your bones are becoming cold. You are just very aware of the physical pain and your feet are sore from walking about, standing about, so that was quite surprising,” shared Maria.

She continued: “The other thing about it is there is no down time, we were looking forward to 6am when we could go home to our bed but for someone who is homeless, they have to do it all again the next day. It’s exactly the same thing, they just go through it all again. There is no place to retreat and feel safe, there is none of that comfort area that we were able to go to 6am.”

“Just all the different aspects that you’d never really consider, some issues you think well people would be hungry, people would be cold but its some of the other issues that were in there that you wouldn’t really have thought about,” Maria added.

When asked if there were any points during the night when the team members felt particularly vulnerable, Maria said: “There were a few people that came over who were quite verbally aggressive, telling us there was no homeless and asked what we were doing, so there was a little bit of that but not huge, maybe three or four people throughout the course of the night and particularly after 1am.”

However, she added that overall the response from the public was very positive and from the street collection alone they raised “upwards of £1,200”.

“One of the things that stood out was people’s generosity. Hugely, hugely generous in terms of donations, in terms of stopping to encourage us and some of the local businesses in terms of giving us food. It was really good to get chatting to people, to talk to them about homelessness, to raise people’s awareness of how homelessness exists within the county.”

First-Housing Enniskillen are still receiving donations until the end of December. If you wish to donate visit their Just Giving page called First Housing’s Big Sleep Out.

“We want to thank everyone involved in supporting us, the general public and local businesses. For people who stopped by to tell us their story of homelessness which was very encouraging and the opportunity to raise people’s awareness, to describe homelessness in Fermanagh, what it was like and what form it took and how people were affected by it. It was really good to have that opportunity,” Maria told this newspaper.