00:00Walking through Rochester Town Centre, it isn't often you see people sleeping out on the street.
00:05Except for last night, where volunteers swapped out their comfy beds for bits of cardboard and sleeping bags.
00:12All to raise awareness of youth homelessness in the country.
00:15We got here about half ten, and the people that's passed us so far, most of them haven't got eye
00:20contact with us.
00:22And it makes you think, do you do that?
00:25I was like, oh my god, where are they going to go to the toilet?
00:27And actually, especially for young girls when they're on the period, it is awful.
00:33Having a period in itself is not a nice thing, so where are they going to go?
00:37Where are they going to change? Where do they get their products from?
00:40Doing it one night is not an experience, but having to do it day in, day out, for years on
00:46end, it must be really, really hard.
00:49I'll be taking part in the sleep out tonight as well.
00:52In fact, I'll be sleeping right here on this yoga mat.
00:55But one night on the streets, rough sleeping does not equate to what a lot of people go through, sleeping
01:00almost every single night.
01:02And that's exactly what Sanjay wants to raise awareness of.
01:05I've got some friends, staff, that all volunteers help.
01:09And there's a couple of businesses involved. I think we've got a few more people coming yet.
01:12So, yeah, the plan is to sleep out for the night just to bring awareness.
01:15It's almost one o'clock in the morning and we were just about to settle in for the night and
01:19then it started raining and my mat is now actually soaking wet.
01:23So I'm going to have to turn the mat over and hope that it doesn't rain again tonight.
01:29So we were just tucked up, ready to sleep and it started torrential downpour.
01:36We're absolutely soaked.
01:37And as the rain started to settle, we too tried to get some sleep.
01:42So it's currently about 5.30 in the morning now.
01:46I didn't sleep at all really last night, maybe an hour, I'd say.
01:50And even that was incredibly uncomfortable.
01:53You just become super aware of your surroundings, whether it's a bird walking past or a car driving by.
01:59And we'll see how everybody else got on last night.
02:02Shocking.
02:02Terrible.
02:03I'm sure terrible. I don't know how anybody could do it.
02:06Makes you appreciate lots of things we take for granted.
02:10It was better than I thought it would be, but it was quite warm, apart from the rain.
02:15I can't imagine what this would be like when it's cold.
02:17Going into the sleepout, we knew that this was only for one night.
02:22But for young people facing homelessness across the county, the night doesn't end when the sun comes up.
02:28Naila Mahamud for KMTV in Rochester.
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