Vicki Lees and Natalie Dickinson, charity workers for Stockport’s Nightstop charity, decided to mark Nightstop’s 15th anniversary by going homeless for 24 hours. ‘We work with homeless young people,’ says Vicki, ‘and we wanted to understand what it feels like to be homeless in Stockport.’
Starting at 6am, they spent the day in and around Stockport town centre. Nothing was open at first but they found somewhere to shelter near a block of flats, and played ‘I spy’ to amuse themselves. Later they returned to the town centre, to use the public toilets and to visit the Wellspring. ‘We had a cup of tea and spoke to the staff who all seemed really nice and very approachable’ says Natalie. They met with Stockport Housing who explained how they deal with homelessness.
Next they spent some time in the town centre but felt that they were getting funny looks from passers by and decided to return to the shelter they had used earlier. ‘We felt safe there,’ explains Natalie, ‘It felt like our own place.’ But as the day drew to a close it all became too much and at 11.30pm they decided to give up.
‘We just couldn’t handle it any longer. We were completely drained – tired, wet and depressed. I think the worst thing was having no structure to the day. We just can’t imagine what it would be like to be permanently homeless as we struggled to mange for 17 hours. It was a complete eye opener and really did make us appreciate just how lucky we are to have a roof over our heads.’
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