Union, corporate leaders sleep on streets CORPORATE and union leaders in NSW have put aside their differences, uniting to sleep on the streets of Sydney to raise money for the homeless. They will spend a cold Thursday night at Carriageworks in Redfern with more than 300 business leaders and politicians who have swapped the 1000 thread count sheets for sleeping bags and cardboard mats. Unions NSW general secretary Mark Lennon will be joined by retail union SDA's NSW secretary Gerard Dwyer, Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary Alex Claassens, nurses' union general secretary Brett Holmes and Michael Aird the NSW secretary of the Transport Workers' Union. The Vinnies CEO Sleepout, now in its eighth year, hopes to raise $5 million. Unions have so far raised $33,315 and Mr Lennon expects "plenty more" will be donated. The event also raises awareness of a problem many people "are only a few bad bits of luck away from facing," Mr Lennon said. "Sleeping rough for a night gives you a valuable bit of perspective about the awful situation facing thousands of Australians each and every night," he said in a statement. The number of people without a fixed address jumped 17 per cent to 105,237 in 2011, up from 90,000 people in the 2006 census. More people are homeless in 2013 then when prime minister Kevin Rudd announced in 2008 a goal to halve homelessness by 2020. Since the first CEO sleepout in Parramatta in 2006 the event has raised over $13 million. Donations can be made at www.ceosleepout.org.au.