A chance encounter with a homeless man in Melbourne was the beginning of a project that has seen Melbourne entrepreneur, Simon Rowe, create a safe place for people to sleep when there is nowhere else to go.
‘I stopped and had a chat to this guy, and I just remember him being the tiredest guy I’d ever seen in my life’, Rowe told The Echo.
‘I went home and told my kids about it. And then they said, “you need to do something about that, dad”. That was the catalyst really, it was just seeing the tired guy and thinking, can’t we do better?’
Inspired by a Japanese pod hotel
After Rowe left the corporate world, and between seeing a Japanese pod hotel online, and then flicking through an old photo album to see a motorhome that he and his mates had made in their 20s, Sleepbus was born.
‘I launched a GoFundMe campaign just to see if anybody else thought the idea was any good. We raised $100,000 in four days. I knew it had legs.’
Rowe bought a bus and started building it with his kids in their backyard, and over about three years the idea grew into what are today’s Sleepbuses.
The Sleepbus service is nothing more and nothing less than a safe bed for a night – a private space to get a good rest and often a respite from a doorway or hidden nook on a street. The buses generally have eight or nine pods, each with a bed, a light, USB charging, ducted heating and airconditioning and a toilet. Guests enter from the street and come in to their own individual space.
Rowe says the service is not an answer to homelessness.
‘Some of my biggest detractors say: “It’s a band-aid measure; it’s a waste of money, we should be putting efforts into affordable housing”. And my answer to that is always: “You are absolutely right”. However, we’ve been trying for years. I’m just trying to do something about it tonight.’
With services now in Byron Bay, Canberra, Maroochydore and Queanbeyan, the biggest challenge is getting volunteers to work the service. Volunteers needed include drivers, caretakers, service volunteers and housekeepers, Rowe says.
‘The drivers take the bus to and from the depot; service volunteers settle in the guests; caretakers stay overnight on the bus, and housing reset the rooms for the next guests – the half is the driver’s driver who takes the bus driver back to their car.
Vollies needed
‘We have a few drivers at other services who drive and do caretaker overnight, and drive again in the morning. They are our Holy Grail volunteer.’
Training is provided, and all roles have a buddy system to get you up and running.
With a vision to end the need for people to sleep rough and a mantra that ‘sleep changes everything’, currently Rowe is flying up from Melbourne on the weekends to drive the Byron Bus, but he’d love a driver to take over, so he can put his energy into creating more services.
‘I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about people on the street. Then I realised I am somebody.’ For more info, visit: Sleepbus.org.
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