'In the morning we can go home - many people can't'

3 hours ago

Tom MacDougallNorth East and Cumbria

News image — Mayor Ceri Cawley was joined by former mayor Barry Hunt and deputy mayor Adam Brook (left to right) to experience sleeping rough

Ceri Cawley Ceri Cawley, Barry Hunt, and Adam Brook are standing together outdoors at night. Ceri is wearing a pink beanie hat which says "Yorkshire Lass" in white letters. She also wears a pink and blue scarf wrapped around her face and a green fleece jacket. Barry is wearing a thick, high-visibility jacket and a forest green beanie hat. Adam follows suits with a black beanie. Under Adam's arm is a blue foam mat, tightly rolled into a bundle with straps around it. Behind them is a grassy verge, and obscured by the darkness, people's houses. — Mayor Ceri Cawley was joined by former mayor Barry Hunt and deputy mayor Adam Brook (left to right) to experience sleeping rough

A mayor who has slept on the street for charity has said she felt it was "the least" she could do because homeless people had no choice but to "do this all the time".

Mayor of Redcar and Cleveland Ceri Cawley slept outside the Boosbeck Village Hall in Saltburn with former mayor Barry Hunt and deputy mayor Adam Brook, along with four formerly homeless veterans, who shared their experiences of rough sleeping.

Cawley said: "Hearing the stories first-hand brings it to reality.

"In the morning, I'm going home, but there's a lot out there who can't."

The event, which ran from 19:30 BST on Saturday until 05:00 was to raise money for the Healthier Heroes charity - specifically, its Morgan House homeless accommodation - and The Chris Cave Foundation.

Cawley said she wanted to raise money for Healthier Heroes because her ward, Dormanstown, had one of the highest number of veterans across Teesside.

Speaking as she was bedding down for the night, she said she had layered up to brace the chillier October weather, including a hat and gloves and two pairs of socks.

"My mum always says you can't put on what you don't have," she said.

Redcar and Cleveland Council Barry Hunt, an older man with a white goatee, laying in a white doorway. His legs are wrapped in a black sleeping bag. He is wearing a forest camoflauge jacket and a black beanie hat pulled down over his ears. — Former mayor Barry Hunt says he has been sleeping out for charity for over a decade

Hunt said he had been sleeping rough to support homeless veterans for 10 to 15 years, including 12 nights in a row for a Remembrance event.

"You get the idea of having to do it every night, if it's raining, snowing, or not, you're still going to go out the next night," he said.

"There's people that die on the streets, a lot of people take for granted that they go home and get into bed in the warm.

"These people, maybe they go out smiling and laughing, then all of a sudden they're on a park bench or in a doorway, being abused."

Brook said he thought more people in positions of power should experience rough sleeping.

"When we're talking in scrutiny committees and making decisions, we need to have an understanding of what people are actually going through," he said.

"A lot of decisions get made when we don't actually know the realities."

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