Cambridge students camp out overnight to experience what it's like to live rough

More than 200 students from St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge camped out in tents overnight in the school’s football field to learn first-hand what it is like to be homeless.

Thursday marked the second annual “A Better Tent City Sleep-Out,” an educational initiative to help students learn about the difficulties of living outdoors.

Students camped out in the cold as they listened to speeches by people who had lived on the street.

Chris Taylor works for Bridges Shelter, Supportive Housing and shared his experience with the students.

“I was a homeless addict, in and out of jail, in gangs - all the different stuff that goes on.”

He talked to the students about showing compassion towards people experiencing homelessness.

“It’s amazing,” said Taylor. “If I had a [chance] in seeing that the youth want to step up now when I was trapped in addiction, it would have allowed me to feel a sense of belonging.”

Speaker Chris Taylor , addresses a crowd during A Better Tent City Sleep-Out in Cambridge on Nov. 21, 2024. (Jeff Pickel/CTV News)

Dylan Richards was one of the students participating in the sleep-out.

“[As] someone who has access to all the materials to keep warm, I found it difficult to assemble all that,” he said.

“I could not even imagine how it must feel like to have to experience this every single night.”

As the students got a small taste of what those living on the streets do every day, some believed they could really make a difference going forward.

“I think it’s really important to emphasize that we as high school students are creating a change, a difference in the way people view unhoused people,” Sona Gija Sabu said.

Rosie Currie, a teacher at St. Benedict, said it’s important for students to have real life experiences when it comes to activism.

“I think [homelessness] is a much more visible problem,” said Currie. “I think that we have two choices. We can take that visibility as a sign that things are getting worse, or we can take that visibility as inspiration to do something.”

Last year’s camp out was held at Monsignor Doyle Catholic Secondary School.

Aftermath

Friday morning, after the camp out, students felt like they learned a lot.

Matthew Ferreira, a student, said he didn’t understand homelessness when he was young.

“I thought they were camping. It seems a lot worse now,” he said, after sleeping outside.

He said it was a positive learning experience.

“It revealed stuff I didn’t know yet,” he said. “It’s new being out in the cold and experiencing it firsthand. It was something different.”

Teachers hope there’s a lot of takeaways from this experience.

“No matter what labels people put on you, it’s important to see how we can break out of those labels and understand the human behind those labels,” said Jessica Vorsteveld, a teacher.