A KENT woman who became homeless as a teenager has urged people to back a major fundraiser to help some of the county’s most vulnerable people.
At 15, Jayne Hendy sat down on a park bench. Terrified she could be sectioned for being gay, she ran away from home.
For the next five years, her bedroom was a public toilet.
“There were many times I considered taking my own life,” said Jayne.
“I just didn’t believe there was a life for me.”
Fast forward 47 years, and Jayne now spends her days ensuring Kent’s rough sleepers never feel that same crushing despair.
She works for Kent homelessness charity Porchlight as a support worker. Aged 62, past the average life expectancy of a former rough sleeper and with a bad heart, she spends her days supporting - and sometimes physically embracing - the hundreds of homeless people across the county.
“I’ve come to realise there are no broken people, just broken systems,” she says.
“You might be dented and cracked, but you are never broken.
“I was homeless in the 70s and 80s, when everything was being privatised and there was absolutely zero support. To think that we now have more people than ever who are homeless - including pensioners - is horrific.
“That must change.”
As such, national charity CEO Sleepout is staging a major fundraiser in Kent to raise vital funds to drive that change.
The March 23 sleepout, at Leeds Castle, will see business leaders give up their beds for one night in solidarity with those who have no choice. It is the charity’s first sleepout this year – a year in which it hopes to raise £1m for the first time.
“We’ve set that target not because it makes a good soundbite, but because the causes the money supports are absolutely drowning in demand,” said Bianca Robinson, CEO of CEO Sleepout.
“There are enough homeless children in Britain to fill Wembley Stadium twice over, and millions of people - including nurses and teachers - are a big bill away from losing the roof over their heads.”
For Jayne, it was that park bench back in 1979 where everything changed.
“I didn’t come from an abusive, broken home, but I was a terrified teenager - terrified because I was gay,” she said.
“Back then, it was something I could have been sectioned for under the Mental Health Act.
“I remember sitting on that bench feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere in the world. I didn’t even know what the conversation would look like if I went home, so I ran.”
She first spent five years in Bristol, sleeping in a public toilet, before moving into squats. She had one close friend on the streets, who tragically died.
At 17, she realised she had not had a proper conversation with anyone for almost a year.
“Nobody came to find me,” she says. “There were no services available for me then. No one reached out.”
Eventually she hitchhiked to London, gaining skills and qualifications. She pulled herself off the streets - although she was 32 before she finally had a front-door key of her own.
Two promises made to her late friend proved pivotal.
One was never to touch drink or drugs.
The other was that if she ever escaped the streets, she would never leave someone else on them. Through her role at Porchlight, that is exactly what she does.
Her mission is to walk side-by-side with Kent’s homeless community until they too hold a front-door key, and to offer something just as powerful along the way.
“I remember hugging a man who just wept. He said I was the first person to touch him in 30 years,” she recalled.
“I’ve held people in my arms as they’ve died, when the only thing I can offer them is my time, to let them know they are someone. That’s the most important thing we can do - give human contact, and let them know they are never alone.
“Underneath all that trauma there’s still a human being - someone’s child.
“When you look at a baby in a pram, you don’t think, ‘I want you to be sleeping rough in 10 years.’ You want them to have the happiest life in the world, and we do our little bit to try to make that dream possible.”
To sign up for the CEO Sleepout Kent, visit https://ceosleepout.co.uk/kent/
Before you go…
Would you like to feature your business in the new Kent Business Spotlight section of the Kent Business Newsletter (for free!) - click here
➡️ Don’t miss the latest networking events near you - https://www.kentbusinessevents.co.uk
➡️ Do you have news or announcements you’d like to share about your business?
Contact us today - [email protected]
If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe and pass it on to another Kent business owner who might also like it! Thanks.
