My terrifying five nights
STUDENT’S SHOCK AFTER HE DISCOVERED WHAT LIFE IS LIKE FOR ROUGH SLEEPERS IN MANCHESTER
AFTER moving to Manchester for university, 21-year-old architecture student Randy Agyemang couldn’t help but notice homelessness in the city.
Originally from Milton Keynes, Randy wasn’t used to seeing lots of people huddled in doorways. Shocked by the visibility of the problem in Manchester, he decided to do something about it.
“I came to Manchester and it was on a different scale. I really noticed how many homeless people there were and just how bad it was,” he said.
“I sort of stepped back and thought obviously everyone knows what homelessness is, but nobody really understands what it’s really like.
“I wanted to gain an insight into what its truly like so I could help raise awareness. I thought if I was able to experience it first-hand then maybe people would have a better understanding of what it’s like.”
A week before his 21st birthday, Randy decided that he was going to spend five days sleeping rough on the streets of Manchester to raise funds for charities including Street Support and Mustard Tree.
So, on October 29, a gloomy Monday afternoon, the architecture student set out to brave the cold streets of Manchester with nothing more than a sleeping bag, toothbrush, the clothes on his back and a camcorder, borrowed from university so he could document his experience.
With no plan, Randy found himself wandering down to Piccadilly Gardens on his first day, where he befriended a homeless man called Jamie.
“He was writing poetry in exchange for money,” Randy said. After sitting together for two hours, Jamie gave him an insight into surviving on the streets.
“He guided me on places to go and places to avoid and how to stay safe for the week. First thing he said to me was to avoid Market Street as it can become quite dangerous around there.”
Randy and Jamie arranged to meet up later that night so Jamie could show him the safest places to go.
“That first night was tough,” Randy went on. “I went to try and find Jamie on Oldham Street but I couldn’t find him or the place so I listened to his advice and went back towards the universities to find a place to sleep there. It was so cold.
Then, after sitting in McDonald’s for two hours Randy decided to sleep by the university outside the Stopford building at Oxford Road.
“The first five minutes when you lay down is extreme, it’s like when you jump into a cold shower. There’s that initial distress and all you want to do is get up.”
After falling asleep for an hour, Randy woke up to discover a drunk man standing over him.
“I could feel eyes on me whilst I was sleeping, he was really close and staring right at me. I jumped out of my sleeping bag, I was absolutely terrified.
“If I hadn’t woken up what would have happened to me? He just lingered around so in the end I moved.”
Randy spent most of his mornings at the Cornerstone Centre on Denmark Road after Jamie had recommended it as a safe space to go to.
“When you think of a homeless shelter you would expect it to be really miserable, but everyone was so cheery and there was a real sense of community”, Randy says. “Everyone was checking up on each other asking if they’d see this person or that person.
“At first, before I explained what I was doing, a lot of people came up to me and told me I looked young, asked if I was okay and