Last night, 10 July 2025, along with about 60 other people, I participated in Lifewise’s Big Sleep Out in Auckland.

The Big Sleep Out is a fundraiser for Lifewise’s work with homelessness, including its services based out of the Merge Cafe in Karangahape Road. More than that, it’s an awareness-raising and educational opportunity for people in positions of influence across various sectors to learn and understand more about homelessness though hearing from those with lived experience and to experience one night of what sleeping rough on the streets of Auckland might actually be like.

“Lying awake in the cold wind and rain outside in a courtyard at AUT’s inner city campus after an evening spent listening to people affected in various ways by homelessness left me with time to reflect on what I’d heard and learned from the experience.”

There’s no doubt that homelessness, especially those sleeping rough, is getting worse in our city. Not only are there larger numbers of people presenting as homeless, the issues that people present with are getting more complex. Those affected increasingly include families, young people, and children. Against that – and frustratingly – the problem is not too big or complex to solve. People from overseas cities grappling with thousands of street homeless are amazed that we haven’t solved this issue by now.

Several speakers last night spoke of the need for more – and more affordable – housing, about the gaps in our social safety nets, and about the need for coordination between health, (including mental health), addiction, housing and income support services. These are human systems that we tolerate being disconnected and hard to access.  It’s something that can be fixed if we want to. We know what to do to end homelessness – as organisations like Lifewise are demonstrating on a daily basis through programmes like Housing First Housing First: Permanent, Secure & Safe Housing NZ | Lifewise. The question isn’t whether or not we can solve it, it’s whether we really want to.

I recently heard a Government Minister describe homelessness as a ‘lifestyle choice’. I wish he’d been at the event last night as speaker after speaker explained why homelessness isn’t a choice they made. Instead, homelessness happened to them because other choices were taken away from them until homelessness was the only option left.

“Homelessness is not a choice – it’s the lack of choices. As one person said – no child grows up in NZ with their life’s ambition to become homeless.”

All the speakers spoke about the need for compassion and connection to people who are homeless – the importance of a smile, of an offer to help, of giving a sense of hope that there’s a way out of homelessness. They spoke about there being little difference between people who are homeless on the street and many of us the room last night. Like others in the room last night, I’m fortunate to have the privilege of being housed. However, it was sobering to hear speakers remind us that most of us are more vulnerable to homelessness than we’d like to think – maybe only three major life changes away from that situation. I imagined if I suddenly had a major health or mental health crisis, lost my job and income, could suddenly no longer pay a mortgage or rent, what situation would I or others like me be in? I imagine I’d pretty quickly exhaust the goodwill of my family and friends. I learned again last night that I couldn’t rely on our state housing system to offer me accommodation, given there are 20,000 people ahead of me on the waiting list. Suddenly, there’s not much difference between me and someone who suddenly finds themselves sleeping in their car or on the street. Food for thought…

Last night wasn’t my first Big Sleep Out. I’ve had the privilege of doing a few of them over the years. It was good to be back there again and be reminded of the fragility of some people’s lives, the fortunate circumstances of my life, and the heroic changes people make when confronted with enormous life challenges that I would struggle to overcome.

It was also good to see again the amazing difference that a small group of committed staff and helpers from organisations like Lifewise are making in the face of this growing issue – usually with extremely limited resources and often in the face of a lack of urgency,  knowledge about the problem, and sometimes even resistance from the people in charge of our social systems. I left this morning feeling extremely humbled and grateful for their work and for the opportunity to perhaps have helped a little bit last night through the generosity of all the people who contributed to my fundraising effort. Thanks so much for your support. Every little bit helps.