ABC #402

OPERATOR
SLEEPBUS.ORG
SLEEP MAKER
Each year in Australia, fluctuating fortunes have meant multiple
thousands of people unfortunately are forced to sleep on the streets
unsheltered every night, let alone have some place safe to stay for longer.
If indeed ‘charity begins at home’, what if that home is actually a bus –
a ‘sleepbus’, to be precise?
WORDS FABIAN COTTER IMAGES COURTESY SLEEPBUS.ORG
When a business or
organisation’s mission
statement is so
impactful that it
could better off used
as a societal clarion call for a lost and wistful
nation, arguably it is time to take note.
“Welcome to the family!” Spotswood,
Melbourne-based Sleepbus – winner of the
2017 Telstra Victorian Charity of the Year
award – starts its introduction to the masses.
“When people work together, their
strengths magnify. Family bestows them
with a collective power to withstand all
kinds of hardship. This is why family is
extremely important,” it explains.
“Sleepbus is a non-profit organisation
bringing safe overnight accommodation
to people sleeping rough in Australia. Our
accommodation is not a long-term solution;
we don’t offer counselling, we don’t give
money, we don’t provide the Ritz. What we
do provide is a safe night’s sleep; we get
people off the street,” it succinctly explains.
“Sleepbus is distinct yet complementary
to existing efforts from other organisations
supporting Australians experiencing, or
at risk of, homelessness. Our work aims to
fill a ‘gap’ rather than overlap or replicate
activities that support the urgent needs of
people in Australia.”
At the heart of the matter is its beautifully
simplistic mantra, one that is often forgotten
or taken for granted by many of the
time-poor and rat-race-challenged among
us these days: ‘Sleep changes everything.’
“Our mission [is] to bring safe overnight
accommodation to people sleeping rough
in Australia,” it continues.
“Our vision [is] to end the need for people
sleeping rough in Australia,” and that: “Our
family … will use its collective power to help
people find pathways out of homelessness.”
So what inspired Sleepbus founder and
CEO Simon Rowe [spoiler alert: he and his
family do much of the fabrication work on
the buses themselves! Let’s just let that sink
in for a moment] to start such a benevolent
entity that offers dignity and grace each
night for often dejected and despondent
‘guests’ whom have nowhere safe, clean,
comfy and simply nice to sleep?
“In short, I found the tiredest man I
had ever seen and my kids told me to do
something about it,” a justifiably busy Rowe
Our vision is to end
the need for people
sleeping rough in
Australia.
explained to ABC magazine, recently.
“I am extremely proud of my boys [now
21 years old] who have dug in, worked hard,
helped me when I needed it and been a
massive supporter of what I’m trying to do –
that’s pretty special,” said Rowe.
“After all, all of this is their fault,” he
laughed.
“Because of the effect ‘the tiredest man
I had ever seen’ had on me, my boys [15 at
the time] challenged me to do something
about it and this set in motion a complete
life change for me; from the business and
corporate arenas to the charity sector and
bus building – and I wouldn’t change it for
the world,” he explained.
THE FLEET
The sleepbus.org bus fleet currently consists
of: 1x Scania 1995 three-axle; 1x Volvo
1995 three-axle, 1x Mercedes-Benz 1992
two-axle, 1x Motorcoach 1992 two-axle,
1x PMC two-axle (as a workshop) – it drives,
but not registered; 1x Mercedes-Benz 1990
two-axle as a stationary laundry bus (no
engine or gearbox); and a Hino two-axle
as a future medical bus to be called
‘sleepbus Health’.
“I’m not sure what bodies they are – they
are sleepbus ones now,” he joked.
“The workshop bus drives and we
obviously use this for our workshop to keep
us out of the weather,” Rowe explained.
“We also get our depot for free, but the
landlord may need to move us to other
locations from time to time, so it was
important that our set-up was mobile and
we could just drive to the a new location
and just keep going, so no setup required.
“The laundry bus is set up to just plug into
an extension power cord and garden hose
and the commercial laundry fires up! We
just have to tow that if we have to move,
which hasn’t happened yet.”
THE STRUCTURE
So how many people are involved at
the core of Sleepbus and what are their
connections exactly, you might ask – all
family members, or people from all walks of
life just wanting to get involved? And what
drives them as a team to make a change?
“I would say every charity starts just like
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ABC February 2021 busnews.com.au