CEO Sleepout Call Puts Housing Stress In Front Of Local Leaders
Ahead of the Vinnies CEO Sleepout on 18 June, Sunshine Coast business leaders are being asked to confront a homelessness picture now shaped as much by working renters as by rough sleepers.
Photo for editorial illustration.
The Vinnies CEO Sleepout on 18 June will again pull Sunshine Coast executives out of their offices and onto a concrete floor for a night, in a fundraiser whose framing has shifted noticeably as housing pressure has reshaped who turns up to local homelessness services.
Service providers say a growing share of clients are now working renters: people in stable jobs unable to absorb a rent rise or a relationship breakdown without losing their housing. That picture sits alongside the more visible rough sleeper cohort the event was originally built around.
Local sign-ups have held up well, with chief executives from property, health, retail and professional services among those committed. Organisers are pushing participants to convert the night's discomfort into longer-term workplace policy: rental hardship support, flexible hours for staff in housing stress, and procurement that favours social enterprises.
Donations to participating leaders remain open through the national Sleepout site. Local coordinators say the test is whether the conversation outlives the morning coffee that follows the event.
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