The night, Director of Augen Software Group, Mitchell Pham was made homeless!

NZAL Advisory Board and Established member, Mitchell Pham was a part of the Lifewise The Big Sleepout 2016 which raised $333, 489.87 to fundraise for Lifewise’s unique “no band aids” approach to homelessness.

Here is Mitchell’s account of July 7, 2016, the night he was made homeless!

“The evening started out well with some basic food for dinner at the soup kitchen around 7pm, indoors, which was great.

The food included a choice of beef lasagne or beef stroganoff, with boiled carrot and broccoli, and roasted potatoes.
The line was long and so it took a long time to get my food, and the portion was quite small.
All this took me back to my refugee-camp days a little bit.  J

Outside, it rained all night.
Around midnight, the thunder & lightning storm hit the area.
The wind changed direction and blew hard at my original sleeping spot.
My cardboard bed got completely wet.

Everyone sleeping in my immediate surrounding had to vacate elsewhere.
With no dry space left in the surrounding area, we had to wait until a cafe nearby closed and then quickly grabbed a spot right outside on their veranda.
By then it was around 1am.
I was so tired so just fell straight asleep.

But sleep didn’t last long!
The cafe opens early in the morning, so their morning shift arrived at 4:30am, and we’re told to move away.
Not having anywhere else to move to, I decided to just get up, pack up and get over to the soup kitchen and into the queue early to wait for breakfast.

The place opened at 6am.
I didn’t have to wait too long because I was in the queue early.
We were given 1 piece of toast with a choice of either spaghetti or baked beans, and either tea or coffee.

After breakfast, I left the place and headed home around 7am.
Best long hot shower I’ve had in a long time.
Then off to work – like just another Friday.

In the meantime, Auckland’s homeless people are still out on the streets, 24×7, with no ‘finish’ or ‘end’ to look forward to.
So if you haven’t yet donated, people like you and me who just happen to be homeless through bad circumstance can still use your help.”