After a conversation with Leona, my optimism levels rise. This is her seventh Big Ibrox Sleep Out and on each occasion, sleep has proven to be relatively unbroken. Perhaps my own sleep score will not take the beating imagined. Then, Fiona, situated just to her left in the Rangers dugout brings me back down to earth. “This is my seventh year and I’ve never slept a wink”. Excellent.

As 50-or-so people dive into sleeping bags at Rangers' stadium, fighting off sub-zero temperature and a few enthusiastic snorers, everyone’s chances of sleeping are different. Just like their reasons for being here. Just like many of the circumstances that leave others experiencing homelessness on the same night in Glasgow.

Every year the Rangers Charity Foundation partners with Glasgow City Mission and the Simon Community to organise the Big Ibrox Sleep Out. The initiative has raised £240k since 2015 splitting funds between the three organisations. It’s a simple concept - spend a night outside voluntarily to raise money for those who don’t have the option. Up to 40 people at present are without even temporary housing in the city and many more are stuck in a vicious cycle of hostel accommodation that is not permanent.

Leona (left) has a better record at Ibrox than Fiona (right)

Sitting down for soup and sandwiches prior to bedtime, Darryl tells me that he’s never missed a sleep out. Even during Covid, he took part remotely and this year, family members have joined in. Asking the obvious question, why is this an annual event, I’m quickly repaid for my curiosity. It was during the first sleep out that Darryl had an experience which provided him with a passion for the conversation. Heading out for breakfast after spending a night outside on the ground and clutching a sleeping bag, he was asked to pay for his meal before eating at a restaurant. Not the type of customer service a chain would presumably extend to anyone they valued. After realising his phone was dead and trekking to a local bank to fund a route home, the manager of the branch presumed the front door had served as a night’s lodgings and shooed him away. As a result, Darryl keeps fundraising and returning. Fighting homelessness is about fighting stigmas as well as sleeping conditions.

Click HERE to donate to the Rangers Review's Big Ibrox Sleep Out Appeal

After supper there’s time for a quiz and, given my vocation, pressure is on during the Rangers round. Confidence is somewhat misplaced when I forget the fourth team Walter Smith’s side defeated on the Road to Manchester in 2008. But who remembers Panathinaikos? Raised on the concept that you can always take extra layers off (but can’t put them on) I am alarmed at another sleeper, John’s, lack of apparent warmth as my teammate treks out of the tunnel wearing just a tracksuit. It doesn’t seem to put him off and the next morning, John assures me he was too warm if anything. I on the other hand was most definitely not.

The point in something like the sleep out isn’t really the act, of course. No one braving freezing temperatures thinks their single night here will solve an issue that’s deep-rooted and entrenched, even if the funds raised have a material impact in the city. But participating will do something. The fight against homelessness and addiction is driven by charities on the ground and volunteers, not government initiatives that have so regularly failed in Scotland.

The Simon Community has declared a ‘people emergency’ because even though everyone is entitled to a bed in the city, there are just not enough this year. The lack of permanent homes clogs up temporary options. Over 40,000 homelessness applications have been made over the 2023-24 period, an increase of over 1000 compared to 2022-23, and the highest since 2011-12. On 31 March 2024, 16330 households were living in temporary accommodation, a figure which is 9% higher than the previous year.

“Last year Edinburgh City Council were the first to declare a housing emergency, a number of other councils followed suit before the Scottish Government did,” Murray Easton from the charity tells me.

“We’re seeing a real desperate need in people looking for advice, basic life essentials like food and sleeping bags. We’re also getting many people coming to us for the first time who you’d think might not need help but in Glasgow you have 20 people going for every rental accommodation. There is not enough to go around. Many are sofa-surfing, they are not roofless but don’t have a home.”

The sleeping area in front of the main stand at Ibrox 

For the last 14 years, Glasgow City Mission has run a night shelter and overnight welcome centre. This year they’re changing model purely because they believe effort and energy is better spent trying to solve the root of the problem - an avenue into permanent accommodation.

“We want to adapt to the needs of the city which have continuously changed, we need to provide a service that meets the need in Glasgow,” says Elyse MacKinnon from the charity.

“1400 people are stuck in temporary accommodation which is unacceptably high. To meet this challenge we’re increasing housing support to move as many people out of temporary accommodation and into settled housing.

Participants slept next to the Ibrox surface for a night 

“Long-term solutions decrease the need for emergencies which will increase capacity for those who urgently need temporary accommodation - rough sleepers. A vicious cycle of a lack of permanent options can keep people trapped in temporary accommodation. We want people to move from hostels to homes.”

Homelessness is big and complex. It’s about environment and society, not just addiction and bad decisions. Of course, addiction is a major cause of rough sleeping and charities spend much resources and energy trying to journey with guests out of that cycle. Drug deaths in Scotland continue to rise. In 2023, 1172 people died from drug misuse in Scotland, a 12% increase from 2022. In 2003, that number was 319. Glasgow City has the highest rate of any district in Scotland. The Scottish government's health secretary Neil Gray recently said the rise in drug deaths was unacceptable and a figure he took responsibility for. Really?

Conversation with two other participants, Stevie and Martin, reminds me of the fact that most who end up on the streets, whether short or long-term, can be afforded little planning time. There’s no conversation with spouses about the number of layers worn and you don’t get a breakfast roll upon waking. As another sleeper puts it, pointing up the the Ibrox main stand, “This isn’t really roughing it, is it?”

The Rangers Review talking to Stevie and Martin

Vicki tells me she’s here raising money and awareness because “The way life is, most of us are not far away from being in that situation ourselves. You can’t take it for granted.”

My own experience volunteering in the homeless sector throughout university taught me this. Stories are complex and we all go through spells in life where relying on others is necessary.

Things only change when we treat issues as our own and challenge our own stigmas. That’s why acts as simple as those who come out to sleep at Ibrox every year, while small, matter so much alongside the funds to harness the fight for a better future this winter. If hostels to homes is the dream we can all play a part in creating it.

Click HERE to donate to the Rangers Review's Big Ibrox Sleep Out Appeal