On Friday 16 October, dozens of Sydneysiders will pull a blanket over themselves in the back seat of their own car and try to sleep. In the morning they will get up, go inside, and put the kettle on. For the families House of Sadaqa supports, there is no going inside.
Sleep in Your Car returns for its second year in 2026, after a first outing that raised $22,863.70 and came within a whisker of its $25,000 target. The premise is deliberately simple, and deliberately uncomfortable: give up your bed for one night, ask people to sponsor you for doing it, and send every dollar to families who sleep in cars because they have run out of other options.
What Sleep in Your Car actually is
It is a sponsored sleep-out, run peer-to-peer. You register, you get a fundraising page, you share it, and on the night of 16 October you sleep in your car instead of your bed. You can do it alone, as a family, or as a team through your workplace, mosque, school or sporting club.
The reason it is a car rather than a park bench or a sleeping bag on the footpath matters. Car homelessness is the version most people never see. It is the family who lost a rental and have not told anyone. It is the woman who left a violent home at 11pm with two children and nowhere booked. It is the tradesman whose work dried up and whose landlord did not wait. They park somewhere well lit, they keep the doors locked, and in the morning they drive the kids to school as though nothing has happened.
That invisibility is the problem. A person sleeping rough in Martin Place gets counted, and gets offered help. A family in a Camry behind a shopping centre often does not.
What happened in year one
The first Sleep in Your Car ran on 10 October 2025 under the banner Solidarity for Local Families. The results:
| Measure | Year one, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Raised | $22,863.70 |
| Goal | $25,000 |
| Percentage of goal | 91% |
| Teams | 7 |
| Individual fundraisers | 40 |
| Average raised per fundraiser | About $570 |
Forty people raising an average of $570 each is a meaningful number for a first-year event with no advertising budget. For context, $570 is roughly a fridge, or a term of school uniforms and shoes for three children, or six weeks of fuel for a parent driving to work and back with no other option.
The 2026 event
- Date: Friday 16 October 2026
- Where: your own car, at home or another location you know is safe
- Goal: $50,000, double last year’s target
- Who can join: individuals, families, workplaces, mosques, schools and community groups
The $50,000 goal is ambitious. Hitting it means roughly doubling both the number of fundraisers and the average raised, which is why the campaign leans so heavily on teams. One person asking ten friends raises a few hundred dollars. A workplace of thirty asking their networks changes the arithmetic entirely.
Where the money goes
Every dollar goes into the Family Support Program, which is the oldest thing House of Sadaqa does. In 2010 the charity’s first act was helping a woman leaving a domestic violence situation, with second-hand furniture and appliances out of a garage in Castle Hill. Sixteen years later that same program now runs out of a warehouse in Revesby and handles roughly one new referral every two days.
Funds raised are spent on the practical things that keep a family together: food, beds and whitegoods, counselling, and transport. If you want the detail, our guides on emergency whitegoods and furniture help in NSW and restarting a home after leaving domestic violence set out exactly what that support looks like.
How to take part
- Register on the Sleep in Your Car campaign page as an individual or a team.
- Set a target. Somewhere between $300 and $1,000 is realistic for a first-timer.
- Share your page with a short, honest message about why you are doing it.
- Sleep in your car on the night of Friday 16 October.
- Post a photo the next morning. It is the single most effective thing you can do for your own fundraising total.
One honest caveat
Sleeping in a car for one night, knowing your front door is twenty metres away, is not homelessness. Nobody at House of Sadaqa pretends otherwise. What it does is make the idea concrete enough that you cannot un-think it, and it gives you a reason to ask people for money that they will actually respond to. The discomfort is a fundraising device and a teaching one. The families it funds are the real subject.
Frequently asked questions
When is Sleep in Your Car 2026?
Friday 16 October 2026. Participants sleep in their own car, at their own home or another safe location, for one night.
Do I have to stay in the car all night?
No. Most people settle in after Isha and stay until dawn, but you set your own limit. If you need to go inside at 2am, go inside. The point is to experience something of the discomfort, not to endanger yourself.
Is it safe?
Park somewhere you already feel safe, ideally your own driveway or garage. Do not run the engine while sleeping, keep your phone charged, tell someone where you are, and do not take part if you have a medical condition affected by cold or poor sleep.
Can children take part?
Only with a parent or guardian present and in the family’s own driveway. Teenagers often find it the most affecting part of the whole campaign, but it should always be a parent’s decision.
What if I cannot sleep in a car?
You can still register, fundraise and donate. Plenty of supporters raise money without sleeping out, and the funds count exactly the same.
Where does the money go?
Into the Family Support Program: food, furniture, whitegoods, counselling and transport for families in Sydney facing homelessness or crisis. It is the same program that grew out of the charity’s very first act of help in 2010.
Support the work behind this article
Sleep in Your Car funds the Family Support Program. You can take part on 16 October, or help directly:
- Register for Sleep in Your Car 2026
- Donate to where it is needed most
- Volunteer in the warehouse or on outreach
- Refer a family who needs help
You can also support us without donating, by choosing one of our social enterprises. Each puts its profits back into supporting families:
- Goodwill Connect, NBN internet for Greater Sydney
- Panda Paper, premium bamboo toilet paper delivered to your door
- The Goodwill Laundry, self-serve laundry in Bankstown
- The Goodwill Shop, our op-shops in Revesby and Bankstown