By Steve Nye, Asia Pacific President - Government and Infrastructure
A night sleeping rough opened my eyes to homelessness.
Friday, June 21 was a particular long and hard day at the office. Perhaps it was the dull ache in my lower back or the pain emanating from my right hip. Or both combined with the waves of tiredness that kept sweeping across me throughout the day; did I mention my burning eyes from lack of sleep?
I was experiencing the effects of “sleeping rough” after spending the previous evening getting a small taste of what many Australians, in fact many people throughout the world, experience on a regular basis. To say I felt sore and less than ready for a day at work would be massive understatement.
On Thursday I traded a suit and tie for thermals, tracksuit pants, a fleece top, thick woolly jacket and a scarf to participate in the CEO Sleepout, an annual event held to raise awareness about homelessness.
Along with 180 CEOs and business people, I arrived at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, collected my two sheets cardboard (someone’s idea of a mattress) and two cups of soup and bread roll, before setting up my accommodation for the night.
Around 8pm we congregated as a group and listened to some people dedicated to working with, and helping, the homeless. I was educated to the range of causes of how people find themselves without suitable, reliable and safe accommodation. We all know that homelessness is an issue, but hearing from these people somehow made it seem more real. The number of people who are homeless is not insignificant, and a large percentage of these people are women and young adults. Once you fall into this cycle it is difficult to re-establish your life, career and future.
Around 11pm I called it a night and crawled into my sleeping bag. Beanie, eye patch and scarf on, I nestled into my two sheets of cardboard. To my complete surprise I managed to doze off to sleep. However at about 1.15am I woke, sore from lying on the hard ground. I moved my woolly coat from being a blanket to additional padding, in an attempt to find some comfort. Finally after around two hours rolling from one side to the other and then onto my back I gave up, rolled onto by stomach grabbed my phone from my bag and spent 30 minutes or so doing emails and writing a post to the MWH Yammer site. I simply needed to distract myself from the discomfort of sleeping on cold, hard concrete. Conscious that I needed to try and get a little more sleep in order to face Friday, I snuggled back into my sleeping bag and tried to find a position that didn’t hurt too much. Hard as that was, it was exacerbated by the increasing cold night air circulating in the stadium. Every breath was cold and a constant reminder of my situation.
Around 4.50am, in a daze of discomfort and half sleep, I heard the sounds of others rising for the day. I joined the growing people extracting themselves from their primitive sleeping arrangements. I overheard someone commenting, “Homeless people are always up early, it’s just too damn uncomfortable for them not to be”. I got it in an instant.
A bowl of porridge and cup of black tea later, I said goodbye to my new friends 
and headed out for the 25 minute walk back the office. In the close to zero
degrees temperature I could feel the coldness in my hands, and throbbing ache
in my back and hips. Thank goodness a warm shower awaited me!
Reflecting on my long night, I have to say that despite the comfort I struggled to deeply connect with people who have been forced onto the streets. What did touch me however, was the amazing people who provided us soup and breakfast just like they do night after night for those much less fortunate than ourselves. These people are true heroes.
Part of my participation in the CEO Sleepout was aimed at raising some much needed money to help these people. On enrolment everyone was given a target of $5,000; I wondered how on earth I could raise such a large amount. I have raised over $8,000, almost entirely due to the generosity of the wonderful people of MWH. As I posted on Yammer at 3.30am on the night itself, I was overwhelmed by the encouragement and support I received from my colleagues. In particular I’d like to acknowledge the amazing contribution from my friends in our Middle East operation.
