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Aussie CEOs to sleep under stars for homelessness awareness

Xinhua, June 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australian business leaders will do it tough overnight as they swap warm beds for sleeping bags and cardboard on concrete at the annual CEO Sleep Out in a bid to raise awareness and much needed funds to help tackle homelessness.

Almost 1,500 business chiefs will be sleeping outside around Australia on Thursday night, raising much needed money to not only help those already homeless, but find ways to stop the slide into homelessness of other at-risk people.

"One night of uncomfortable and disruptive sleep has a huge impact on you the next day, your alertness and mood is severely impacted. Imagine sleeping like that for weeks, months and even years," St. Vincent de Paul's Goulburn/Canberra regional chief Paul Trezise, the sleep out's organizer, said in a statement.

"This practical experience for CEOs gives them some insight into how hard it can be to hold a job, continue study or even keep a family and relationship together if you're homeless."

As of 1200 local time (AEST) on Thursday, St. Vincent de Paul had raised almost 4.8 million Australian dollars (3.61 million U.S. dollars) to provide its much needed support services. That figure is expected to double to almost 10 million Australian dollars (7.52 million U.S. dollars) in the coming days.

"The effects of trauma, a lack of quality education, an experience of family or domestic violence, or inadequate support of chronic mental illness are all common underlying facts of the people we support," Trezise said.

Just over 105,000 people in Australia are currently experiencing homelessness, with 60 percent of those under the age of 35, almost half of which are women, according to St. Vincent de Paul, sighting figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Last year the CEO Sleep Out raised just under 6.41 million Australian dollars (4.82 million U.S. dollars), providing 497,738 beds, 1,469,117 meals and 1,173,698 hands of assistance.

The annual CEO Sleep Out began in Sydney in 2006, expanding in 2010 to now host business chiefs in all major Australian cities and regional centers, including the New South Wales state port-cities of Wollongong and Newcastle. Endit