VOLUNTEERS will sleep rough to get a taste of life on the streets and raise cash to help end homelessness in Southend.

Southend-based homelessness charity Harp is holding a 12-hour sponsored sleep-out at Southend High School for Boys to help achieve its aim of ending rough sleeping in the borough by 2018.

The charity, which opened a £2.3million day and night homeless shelter in York Road, Southend, in March, hopes about 100 people will take part and raise £5,000.

Organiser Catherine Hodgson said: “We want people to get a taste of what it’s like to sleep rough.

"Individuals who have done sponsored sleep-outs for us have said it’s a long night. You get cold and lonely.

“If you multiply that by every night, with no end in sight, that’s what we want participants to get a feel for–what it feels like to be homeless.”

A few individuals have already signed up ahead of the event’s official launch, but the charity, which needs to raise about £1.5million a year to operate, hopes businesses will enter groups.

Ms Hodgson said: “We get grants, but there is always a shortfall and we have to raise a few hundred thousand from donations each year. This is part of the normal figure we have to raise.”

The sleep-out, from 8pm on Friday, October 10, to 8am the following day, is billed as a challenge, but organisers hope it will be fun.

Participants are invited to use cardboard boxes and sleeping bags for shelter.

Barbecue food will be on sale in the evening and a hot breakfast will be provided from 6am, with free tea and coffee available throughout the event.

The school, in Prittlewell Chase, has space for at least 200 volunteers and cover if the weather makes sleeping outdoors impossible.

To register for the event, which costs £10, and download sponsorship forms, visit www.harpsouthend.org.uk or call 01702 415834.

Similar events held by Southend YMCA outside its supported accommodation in Ambleside Drive, Southchurch, have raised £25,000 in two years.