Vic Mensa spent a night sleeping rough on the streets of Chicago to raise money and awareness for the city’s unhoused.
The Chicago-born recording artist joined a group of volunteers giving out meals to the homeless on Tuesday night. He also spent a night sleeping in a tent under the city’s viaduct to experience the harsh conditions individuals without homes face.
Despite the cold, with temperatures into the mid-30s, Vic Mensa was determined to support his friend, the event’s organizer Englewood Barbie. The activist and entrepreneur is raising money to build a shelter for the unhoused. According to TMZ, she’s raised about $126,000 of her $ 1 million goal.
“We outside tonight in Chicago,” Vic Mensa explained to the outlet. “Sleeping underneath the viaduct raising money to help my homegirl Englewood Barbie build her own shelter to provide for the unhoused of Chicago.”
He continued: “It’s cold as f### but it’s wild to think that people have to live outside every night. In the wintertime, people freeze to death so we’re taking this moment to honor that experience and do our part to work to make the city a better place.”
Check out the video below, where Vic Mensa gives fans a glimpse inside his tent.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Vic Mensa announced his plans to help bring clean water to people in Ghana.
“We’re building 3 boreholes in different communities in Ghana to provide clean drinking water,” Vic Mensa explained in January. “The first being the Asokore Zongo in Koforidua where my family lives, which is already built.”
