THE MAN SLEEPING ROUGH ON XMAS DAY TO RAISE MONEY FOR CHARITY Sewage warning for festive dippers
TOMORROW, while most people in Wales celebrate indoors with loved ones, Richard Roncero will be sleeping rough on the streets of Cardiff.
He’ll be one of a number of homeless people in the capital who will be curling up in shop doorways, in car parks and next to electrical cabinets over the festive period.
But Richard isn’t actually homeless.
He’s living on the streets - hundreds of miles away from his fiancée and children - for a very important cause.
The 39-year-old Scotsman is the founder and director of Edinburghbased charity Steps to Hope SCIO, which helps the homeless and those suffering with drug and alcohol addiction.
He is undertaking an eight-week challenge - having begun on December 5 and ending on February 3 - to sleep rough in eight different cities with just a sleeping bag and his phone.
Richard, who is a recovered drug addict, has not taken any money along with him, meaning he is forced to beg on the streets.
He is also not accepting any handouts and will be sleeping outside concrete for two months to make the experience as “authentic as possible”.
The aim of the campaign is not only to put a spotlight on the issue of homelessness in the UK, but also to raise funds for his charity to complete the renovation of its newly-purchased residential addiction recovery centre.
Dubbed Hope House, the 10-bedroom property, which is in West Lothian, needs lots of work done before it can open, Richard said.
He has already taken on Glasgow and Belfast and is currently staying in Cardiff for nine days, having arrived on December 20, before he heads to Blackpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Inverness, and finally Dundee.
It means he will be sleeping rough in the Welsh capital on Christmas Day, as well as his ninth addiction recovery birthday on December 27 and on his milestone 40th birthday.
Supporters of his organisation voted for the locations where he would complete the challenge and he has been documenting his experience on Facebook, through live videos, photos and posts.
Explaining how he set up the charity, Richard said he was in active addiction - primarily to cocaine and alcohol - for 16 years from the age of 15.
The years-long ordeal saw him enter rehab twice, left him feeling suicidal and with “broken relationships” with family members.
“I never got a day clean and sober until I was 31... every single day using,” he said.
“I just got to a place where I was done with the life I was living. I had tried to engage in help for many years but I just couldn’t find anything that worked.”
In the end, it was another former drug addict mentored him into recovery.
“And when I got clean, I realised how many people were out there on our streets that had no idea the help that was available to them,” he said.
“So I wanted to create a platform in order to reach these people.”
And so Steps to Hope was born and was founded on April 4, 2018. The charity now has 90 “incredible” volunteers and two members of fulltime staff, one of which is Richard.
“Every single donation we get, 100% of it goes back into the services,” he said.
The organisation first set up a soup kitchen and from that started to grow, Richard said.
“At one point during Covid we were operating seven days a week as a food provision, feeding thousands of people every day,” he said.
“[Now] we’ve got two soup kitchens - it’s a sit-down three-course dinner - and we’ve got people in recovery serving as well, which creates a pathway to our residential recovery programme.”
The residential recovery programme - which is completely free of charge, like all the charity’s services, and is open to anyone from the UK has been running for two years, Richard said, and so far around 30 people have completed it per year.
“By the time they graduate from our programme, not only are they 90 days clean and sober, but they now have all these new healthy relationships with people who are clean and that helps to sustain long-term sobriety,” he said.
At the moment the residential recovery programme is closed.
“I did another sleep rough [campaign] two years ago and we raised £90,000, which allowed us to put down a substantial deposit on this new property.
“But there is a lot of work that needs to be done on it... it’s costing tens and tens of thousands of pounds to get it up and running.
“Because we’re closed, I thought it would be a good idea to come out, to try and generate awareness, generate funds and get Hope House open. With a bit of luck we aim to open it in April 2024.”
Asked how the challenge was going so far, he said: “It is exhausting out here. Someone told me to get a job, start contributing to paying tax rather than giving me a wee thumbs up and a smile.
“You can understand why [homeless] people start to disconnect from society. It makes 100% sense to me why people are trying to consume something to blot our their intolerable situation as best they can and to try and get through another repetitive day.
“Although the public will say: ‘They’ll just buy drink with that, that’s why I don’t give.’”
And on his experience in Cardiff in particular, he explained he had managed to get help from the Huggard - a centre helping homeless people in Cardiff - and, although he had used their food and wash services, he refused their offer of a room to sleep in.
He said: “It’s been a very welcoming city - the people are really friendly. I’ve stumbled across an amazing service called the Huggard centre where I’ve been getting fed and getting a shower every day.”
He added: “Of course, it’s still a struggle - I’m sleeping on concrete and in the elements of the weather.
“I’ve managed to make a few pounds through begging so I can eat. But I’ve noticed there is a lot of drug addiction here.”
You can donate to Richard’s challenge at www.justgiving.com/ campaign/sleeprough8weeks 8cities
THOUSANDS of Britons heading for a festive dip will be swimming in sewage-dumped waters, the Lib Dems have said, as they called for a ban on dumping in swimming areas.
Across the country, swimmers flock to beaches and lakes on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Of 32 event locations analysed by the Liberal Democrats, there were almost 1,000 sewage spills last year.
In Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, where a New Year’s Day swim is set to take place, more than a thousand hours of sewage has been pumped into the water.
Meanwhile, those heading to Cirencester for a Boxing Day charity paddle will wade through waters which have suffered from 67 sewage discharges lasting a total of 405 hours last year.
In total, 4,574 hours worth of sewage was spilled on beach fronts across the UK where festive swimmers are expected to visit this year, according to the Liberal Democrats.
Former party leader Tim Farron said there “needs to be a ban on sewage dumping in swimming areas”.
The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale added: “The freezing cold water should be the only thing swimmers worry about, not sewage floating by them.”
A Surfers Against Sewage report found there were 1,924 cases of people getting sick due to suspected sewage pollution over the last year, nearly triple the number of cases reported in the previous year.
Earlier this month, Mr Farron tabled an amendment to the Victims And Prisoners Bill for a new sewage illness compensation scheme but this was defeated.
Mr Farron, the party’s environment spokesperson, said: “This is a real Christmas stink for so many hoping to enjoy their traditional festive swim. The freezing cold water should be the only thing swimmers worry about, not sewage floating by them.
“It’s disgusting that our coastlines and lakes have been polluted by this foul habit. There needs to be a ban on sewage discharges in swimming areas. When will Conservative ministers finally clamp down on profiteering water firms who are destroying our environment?
“It was shocking to see Conservative MPs block plans to compensate swimmers made sick by sewage. Not only are they letting them pump sewage into waterways, but they are also content for swimmers to get sick.”