Annually, business leaders, community leaders, mums and dads, forgo the creature and go Homeless for a Night to raise awareness of the growing issue of Homelessness in Toowoomba and ensure that the Basement Soup Kitchen can provide lunchtime meals, swags, essential services and care to people in need in our community.

The night is both humbling and inspiring, as you experience in a small way some of the difficulties and discomfort people who are homeless experience each night while being inspired by the stories of people who have experienced homelessness and the work of many individuals, services and businesses who are making a difference in the lives of people who are homeless.

Over the past nine years, this campaign has raised an impressive $842,849! This year, we are setting our sights high with an ambitious goal of $1,000,000. This substantial amount is crucial not just to sustain our operations but also to effectively address the growing needs and numbers of individuals and families facing Homelessness in Toowoomba. Your support is vital in helping us reach this goal.

For the past 30 years, we have operated out of the Basement at 10 Neil Street; we have used this space as best as possible to serve the needs of guests coming into our service. We have added tables and repurposed our office into a resource room where people can access hygiene packs, towels, swags, shoes, and new underwear. We have also lost space where we once hosted various outreach services to train people with barriers to housing and employment.

The lack of space has forced us to rent a separate property nearby, which has been a significant financial burden and has disrupted our services. This situation is not sustainable in the long run, and we urgently need your support to implement our three-year plan to purchase a building that will allow us to reunite our offices and soup kitchen, expand our services, and become sustainable through social enterprise.

In response to our current need, we have devised a three-year plan to purchase a building to reunite our offices and soup kitchen, expand our services to respond to the holistic needs of our guests and become sustainable through social enterprise.

To sign up or donate to Homeless for a Night visit www.homelessforaweek.com.au