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THIS month I shall be braving the freezing cold of a December night to ‘sleep’ under the stars to raise money for the Social Bite campaign to tackle homelessness.

This is a huge personal challenge for me: I have never camped and am blessed to have always had a comfortable bed to sleep in every night. Sleeping rough for just one night will enable myself and a team from Dunfermline Abbey to experience firsthand just some of the challenges of rough sleeping – and hopefully fundraise for the Sleep in the Park campaign to work towards ending homelessness (donations can be made at www.bt.ly/2knWgvw). The experience will not be entirely authentic – we shall be joined by up to 9000 others in the Princes Street Gardens, in Edinburgh, but it will give a flavour of the nighttime challenges for those with nowhere to go.

My decision to take part was prompted by a deep unease at the numbers of people I witness sleeping rough on the streets of our capital city every day.

Homelessness remains a scandal in Scotland and the wider UK – a wealthy westernised civilisation with a welfare system which may be in need of reform, but is better than that of many other countries.

Yet every night, hundreds of people still have no roof over their head and face the prospect of seeking shelter from the elements, shivering in doorways and wherever they can to keep warm, fearful for their safety, cold and hungry.

No formal figures of rough sleepers are recorded and official figures record only those making homelessness applications for accommodation – a figure which homeless charities believe is underrepresented. Crisis Scotland reports that in 2014/15 1409 people making homeless applications said they had slept rough prior to making the application while Shelter Scotland reported an increase of 10 per cent in rough sleeping in 2016.

As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, it should be remembered he was not delivered into a lavish, rich home, but came amid homelessness.

Rough sleeping is simply the tip of the iceberg. There will also be many families this Christmas with no place to call home, living in temporary accommodation and desperate for the security of a permanent roof over their heads. Shelter Scotland statistics show that on average in 2016, a household in Scotland became homeless every 19 minutes. The same figures show a 16 per cent rise in the number of children in temporary accommodation.

Charities believe homelessness can be eradicated by offering better support and intervention to tackle the root causes, which have remained consistent.

As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, it should be remembered he was not delivered into a lavish, rich home, but came amid homelessness, insecurity and an uncertain future – the very issues facing thousands of people in Scotland tonight.

Lynne McNeil

Editor

The Life and Work team wishes all readers a very merry Christmas and a peaceful new year.