Cold sleepers can enjoy warm glow

Dundee’s Slessor Gardens played host to one of several mass sleep-outs across Scotland and those who took part should be congratulated. Sleep in the Park, the brainchild of social enterprise Social Bite, has raised more than £3 million.

It’s cameraderie and celebrity visits in no way replicate the plight of homeless people and some critics branded the exercise a form of “virtue signalling”, a chance for the welloff to show empathy before returning to their centrallyheated homes and warm beds.

But they are missing the point.

As well as raising millions of pounds to take hundreds of homeless people off the streets, the event has deepened awareness and ensured continuation of the conversation about how we treat the most vulnerable people in society.

A Dundee City Council official recently stated there were no homeless people in the city but, even if that dubious claim is accurate, the deepening financial crisis across the country ensures it will not be the case forever.

Everyone has their own problems and it is still all too easy to walk past those who live on pavements and sleep in doorways.

Although the annual Sleep in the Park is a one-night event, the publicity around it helps remove the stigma which remains a barrier to properly tackling the issue.

Those who braved the winter elements, even for a single night, deserve to bask in a warm glow for playing their part.