12,000 set to sleep rough to help the homeless

MORE than 12,000 people are expected to take part in this year’s Sleep in the Park event to help raise money for Scotland’s homeless.

Organisers say they hope the swell in numbers from last year’s 8,000 charitable rough sleepers will smash the £4million total raised in 2017.

The event will take place in Scotland’s four largest cities – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee.

Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of Social Bite, who is organising the event, said: ‘The money raised from Sleep in the Park 2018 will be put towards rapidly rehousing rough sleepers and providing them with support.

‘We’ll make sure that the most vulnerable members of society – for example people coming from the care system or prison – don’t end up homeless. The funds will also go towards a number of other programmes that will be a catalyst for long-term structural change.’

The event, which takes place on December 8, aims to raise £6million.

Amy MacDonald and KT Tunstall will perform at each of the four cities thanks to a private jet donated by Andrew Devlin, a Glasgow-based businessman.

More acts, hosts and special guests will be announced in the lead-up to the event.

Social Bite is also preparing to welcome its first residents to the 11 purpose-built two bedroom homes and a community hub that makes up the Social Bite Village in Edinburgh in the coming weeks.

Between April 2017 and March 2018 there were 34,950 homeless applications made, according to statistics from the Scottish Government.

Of these 82 per cent of people were found to be homeless or facing the threat of homelessness.