John Denham MP: Roughing it for homeless, 1992
Edited from The Advertiser article, 9 April 1992
“Housing chief and Labour election hopeful John Denham, will be sleeping on the job this weekend to raise the profile of homelessness charity, The Society of St James.
The prospective Labour MP for Southampton Itchen will be recovering from the rigours of the election campaign by dozing in the showroom window of a furniture store from 9am-10am on Saturday morning (11 April).
The sleep-in at the Habels of Winchester premises, Hanover Buildings, is to raise cash for the Society of St James Night Shelter. For the past 20 years the Bernard Street Shelter has survived on renewing its ‘temporary’ planning permission for the city council, often to the disapproval of nearby residents.
Now the shelter is on the move to a new hostel in Albert Road South and Saturday’s sleep-in is to fund equipment for the base. John Denham’s efforts will be followed by those of Colin Mitchell, the city’s Assistant Director of Housing responsible for homelessness, and joined by those of volunteers from the Society who will be taking it in turns to occupy a bed in the window of the store, inviting passers by to sign sponsorship forms or make cash donations towards the work.”
Since this event in 1992, the Society of St James have held various takes on the traditional Sleep-out. The most recent was last year’s ONE BIG Sleepout which is to become an annual event whereby Hampshire residents and community groups are invited to hold their own individual sleepouts or sleepins, all to raise funds and awareness for the Society of St James.
Were you one of the volunteers in the Habels Sleep-in?
Do you fancy holding a Sleepout as part of our ONE BIG Sleepout on March 22 2013?.
