High-profile Kiwis invited to rough it for a night to raise funds and awareness of homelessness

Monday, 30 June 2025

After a five-year Covid hiatus, the Lifewise Big Sleepout fundraiser is back.

The Auckland-based charity is inviting high-profile business and community leaders to spend a night sleeping rough on July, 10 at AUT.

The funds raised will go towards maintaining Lifewise's Merge Café for rough sleepers.

As the country plunges into winter, well-known Kiwis are being invited to sleep outside on cardboard during the coldest month of the year to raise awareness on homelessness.

After a five-year hiatus initially due to Covid-19, the Lifewise Big Sleepout fundraiser is back.

The Auckland-based charity is asking Aotearoa's most influential business and community leaders to take part in “a night of discomfort” to help raise $500,000.

Will you be participating? Email mildred.armah@stuff.co.nz

AUT City Campus will host the Big Sleepout’s return on July 10.

The fundraiser is designed to give participants a first-hand understanding of what it’s like to sleep rough, not to replicate it.

Speaking to Stuff, Haehaetu Barrett, Lifewise chief executive said: “We knew it was timely to bring it back because of the need we're obviously seeing out in the community, specifically around heightened numbers of rough sleeping and what that's looking like since the close-down of the emergency motels.

“But also to come together as communities to help tackle and provide solutions to homelessness in Aotearoa.”

The pandemic and rising living costs had worsened the homelessness crises, but despite the severity of the issue, many New Zealanders remain disconnected from its harsh realities, the charity said.

In March, Auckland Council's community committee recorded a 53% rise in people sleeping rough in the city over four months.

Data from Auckland Council's Community Impact team shows the number of people known to be living in cars, parks or on the streets rose from 426 people in September to 653 people in January.

In the years since the last sleepout, the charity has seen a rise in certain demographics sleeping rough including, “people with young families, children, babies even, right across to aged care”.

Rob Campbell, Chancellor of AUT, will be participating in the event for the first time.

He said homelessness “is definitely increasing” in Tāmaki, having noticed, on his morning commute, the large line of people waiting to access shelter and a hot meal from local charities.

“It is not unknown for us to find students from AUT who have nowhere to sleep at night and are sleeping in laundromats and on the street and places like that, and still trying to study, believe it or not.”

While Campbell is “a bit apprehensive” about how cold and uncomfortable it will be, he said, “it is trivial compared to the real experience. I'm sure it's going to be a good learning experience for us all.”

In addition to experiencing what it’s like to sleep on “cold, hard concrete”, participants get to meet and hear from inspiring individuals with lived experience of homelessness. Cardboard will be provided but participants are encouraged to bring their own supplies.

The event also serves as a unique networking opportunity, bringing together some of the country’s leading figures outside of a boardroom setting, Barrett said, in the hope of starting conversations and ideas on how to best tackle the issue.

The Big Sleepout is also a fundraiser for Lifewise’s Merge Café on Karangahape Rd, which supplies food and social services to rough sleepers.

The previous event, held in 2019, raised just under $500,000, Barrett said, with more than 140 of the country’s top business and community leaders registered.

Information on how to donate or get involved can be found on the Lifewise website.

CLARIFICATION: Participation in this year’s Big Sleepout is limited to business and community leaders, and other well-known New Zealanders. The headline, sells and story have been tweaked to reflect that. The public can get involved by donating to the cause. (Amended: June 30, 1.04pm.)