Business leaders to spend night outdoors to tackle Bristol’s ‘heartbreaking’ homelessness problem 

An annual event will see volunteers spend the night outdoors later this month to raise awareness and money for local homelessness good causes.              

The CEO Sleepout event on November 27 at Gloucestershire Cricket Club will see business leaders brave the cold and play their part in tackling the city’s ‘heartbreaking’ homelessness problem. 

CEO Sleepout chief executive Bianca Robinson said the event will raise vital funds to help some of the area’s most vulnerable people in the face of a housing and cost-of-living crisis.   

According to homeless charity Shelter, almost 3,000 people in the city were homeless on any given night last year.               

“Shelter’s shocking figures are a sobering reminder as to how bad the problem still is in Bristol,” said Robinson.   

“In this day and age, nobody should be forced to sleep on the streets, but the grim reality is that far too many people in the city sadly have no other choice.  

“That’s why this event is crucial and will hopefully raise much-needed funds that could make a real difference in people’s lives. 

“Now we are calling on Bristol’s business community to play their part and spend a night in the cold. It probably won’t be a comfortable night, but that one good deed could change local lives forever.” 

Launched in 2013, CEO Sleepout has raised almost £4m to date for charities and good causes trying to combat homelessness.   

But figures published earlier this year show rough sleeping is on the rise for the first time in half a decade.  

And Shelter has warned there would also likely be a ‘sharp rise’ in homelessness this year amid the national economic situation.      

Local business leader Elaine Milne, a director at Milne Wealth Management, is taking part in the CEO Sleepout for the first time.   

“To see people in this awful predicament in the place I now call home breaks my heart,” said Milne, who  narrowly avoided being made homeless around 18 years ago while living in Scotland.   

“I’m immensely grateful for the position I’m in today and I hope that what little I can do makes a difference to someone.”  

She will be joined at the event by Nathan Littleboy, founder and director of the local property firm, Nathan Littleboy Property.      

He said he’s taking part as he is “passionate about helping the homeless” in his home city - a problem he believes shouldn’t exist.   

“Life can be complicated and for many reasons people can find themselves homeless,” he said. 

“I sell houses for a living so am acutely aware how supply and demand drives house prices to a point they are unaffordable for the majority and in times of hardship, can lead directly to repossessions.

“How can it be that in the UK with all our care and concern for others, we still allow unfortunate individuals to be forced to live the street?”      

With just weeks before the CEO Sleepout, business leaders and figures from Bristol and the wider area are being urged to sign up for an “unforgettable experience”.  

For more information on the 2023 Bristol CEO Sleepout, or to sign up, visit: www.ceosleepout.co.uk/bristol/