By Stephen Dale

A group of 30 people slept rough for the annual Big Sleepout at a Hove primary school on Saturday, November 16.

The event, at Aldrington Primary School, Eridge Road, was put on by Hove charity Off the Fence and hoped to raise £10,000 for homelessness.

Notable participants included the mayor of Brighton and Hove Denise Cobb and East Sussex High Sheriff Graham Peters.

Paul Young, CEO of Off the Fence said: “One death is a tragedy but we have lost 13 people on the streets of Brighton and Hove this year and we want to make sure that we can eradicate that figure.”

The fundraisers spent the night in the school playground from around 9pm to 8am the following morning with little more than a sleeping bag and a piece of cardboard.

Mr Peters said: “If it gets any publicity for the cause of homelessness and the realisation in people’s minds that the problem is out there, that will make having a slightly chilly Saturday evening worth doing.

Off the Fence has been able to permanently house 75 people in the past year and has referred over 200 others to hostels or drug rehab.

Despite this there are more than 100 homeless people sleeping on the streets of Brighton and Hove every night.

A participant in the Big Sleepout John Butler said: “One of the biggest challenges is that a lot of people when they see rough sleepers assume that they are drug addicts or alcoholics, and it isn’t true.”

Another participant Andy Heald said: “It will be cold, we will wake up with swollen throats and stiff bodies in the morning, but we’ll get up and go home.

"It’s remembering that other people don’t have that luxury that’s important tonight.”

The Big Sleepout had backing from charities including The Martlets Hospice, Age UK, The Argus Appeal, and Rockinghorse Children’s Charity.

Brighton and Hove city councillor Christopher Hawtree took part, and said of the homeless: “It’s not just some bunch of people who are permanently down on their luck, it can happen to anybody, it just takes a slight increase in the mortgage rates or losing a job.”

Mr Young said a big concern was that once homeless people they get wet they get frozen and they have nowhere to wash, while mental health is the number one issue.

New government legislation saying under-25s will not get housing benefit was a cause of concern for Mr Young.

He said: “It will be the perfect storm if the under-25s get no housing benefit. We will see a mass exodus of young people on the streets of the cities.”

Donations to Off the Fence can be given via its JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/otft/Donate