Sleepbus founder 'very confident' Queanbeyan homelessness project is safe despite national woes

The Queanbeyan community is eager for the town’s ‘Sleepbus’ to live on despite news the national homelessness project is winding up due to financial struggles.

Sleepbus is a national not-for-profit that creates customised buses to provide homeless people with a safe place to sleep.

It was founded by Melbourne businessman Simon Rowe in 2016, who found himself homeless for several months at the age of 19 after his car’s engine unexpectedly blew up and he had to spend his rent money on repairs in order to keep his job.

The first bus rolled into the ACT region in 2021 after local charities helped raise more than $100,000 for the Queanbeyan Sleepbus.

Inside were 14 separate bed ‘pods’ (each with a mattress, pillows, sheets, blankets, USB charging, a lockable door and a television), two toilets, personal storage lockers, pet kennels, security and an intercom system.

The bus was based at the town’s Visitor Information Centre on Farrer Place three nights a week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and was initially staffed by more than 100 local volunteers on rotation.

Later that year, the National Council of Women in the ACT spearheaded a fundraising drive to bring a ‘Pink Sleepbus’ to Canberra, specifically for homeless women.

Inmates from the Alexander Maconochie Centre helped make the sheets, quilt covers and pet beds, and the Tuggeranong Uniting Church partnered with the National Council of Women to host the bus in its car park three nights a week.

This was cancelled shortly afterwards, however, due to a lack of volunteers, a problem that has also affected Queanbeyan’s operation. The bus needs a minimum of one caretaker, two night-service people and a bus driver every night.

According to the Sleepbus website, buses are currently operating on the Sunshine Coast, Hervey Bay and Redcliffe in Queensland. Eight more are either under construction or not operational in Ballina, Taree, Ballarat, Coffs Harbour, Sarina, Mackay and the Sunshine Coast.

However, in a video shared to the Sleepbus Facebook page today (22 January), Mr Rowe announced the charity would wind up on 30 June due to financial issues that have “come to a head”.

“As many of you would know if you’ve followed me for any of this 10-year journey … we’ve really been struggling financially as a very small organisation for the past 18 months … and we’ll have to start winding up the Sleepbus charity,” he said.

“It’s just become impossible and I don’t see any improvement coming in this 2025 … We’ve just run out of money and we can’t do this anymore.”

All staff have been let go, and Mr Rowe expects to spend the next few months finishing the remaining eight buses and working with local communities to find organisations to “take ownership of the vehicles and get the services up and running”.

“I just won’t be able to launch or run those services.”

He was “very confident” Queanbeyan’s Sleepbus will be able to continue.

“We’re speaking with our charity partners there – I’m very confident that we’ll get somebody who can take on the service there and that’ll be great,” he said.

The Queanbeyan Sleepbus website lists the Queanbeyan Housing Action Committee (QHAC), Brilliant Admin Solutions (BAS) and MTP Services as its major supporters.

QHAC helped crowdsource the $100,000 needed to get the bus up and running, while BAS contributes $5000 annually to running costs, and MTP Services coordinates the volunteers and a monthly giving program.

The St Benedict’s Community Centre, which also helped fund the bus, described the news of Sleepbus’ demise as “a crying shame”, but not all that much of a surprise.

“We know [the Queanbeyan Sleepbus] hasn’t been running that well,” coordinator Elaine Lollback told Region.

“It’s meant to be running three days a week, but we know it isn’t, and we’ve got more people living on the street than ever before.”

She said local charities lacked the ability to make the changes they’d like because they were “not allowed to”.

“We kept flagging there were problems and we wanted to help, but there’s a point you can’t help because you’re not allowed to … I’m still a firm believer in the model. It just demonstrates it’s got be run at the local level.”

Ms Lollback said the centre was keen to discuss ways to restore the bus to its former glory.

“If there’s an opportunity, we need to have a look and think about what that is.”

Referring to media enquiries about the fate of the Sleepbus in a Facebook video, Mr Rowe said, “I won’t be taking your calls”.

When contacted by Region, QHAC said it was no longer involved with the Queanbeyan Sleepbus. MTP Services declined to comment. BAS was also contacted for comment.