Volunteers work to launch independent service after national charity Sleepbus folds

Australia Broadcast Center

21 hours ago

Volunteers across Australia are working to make the dream of safe sleeping for homeless people a reality following the collapse of the national charity Sleepbus earlier this year.
In January, the non-for-profit Sleepbus, which aimed to transform old buses into temporary accommodation, announced it had folded due to financial pressures.
At the time, the organisation said it would cease managing its operating buses across the country and would finish construction and delivery of outstanding buses by July.
Now, volunteer community groups are preparing to run the buses themselves.
Bob Nelson from the Manning Homeless Action Group in Taree on the New South Wales Mid North Coast said his group of volunteers was excited by the prospect.
Other communities have lodged complaints with the national charities regulator over allegations that Sleepbus failed to deliver on its promises.
To receive a bus, Sleepbus required a person or group to raise $100,000 in donations, and in return it would construct, deliver and manage the bus in the group's preferred location.
The Manning Homeless Action Group gave Sleepbus $100,000 in 2023 to bring a bus to Taree.
While the agreement seemed fairly straightforward, what happened next was anything but.
After announcing Sleepbus would be closing its doors in January, Sleepbus began requesting $50,000 from some communities with incomplete buses to finish production.
Manning Homeless Action Group's Terry Stanton said the group gave Sleepbus $50,000 to finish their bus planned for Taree, despite reservations that their initial donation would not be refunded.
"There was also no suggestion that our [initial payment of] $100,000 would be given back to us," he said.
Mr Stanton said volunteers were then told they would be receiving a bus initially promised for the nearby town of Coffs Harbour.
The Coffs Harbour bus could not proceed as, without Sleepbus's assistance, a charity to operate that service could not be found.
One month later, the group was told by Sleepbus that they would be receiving a bus from Byron Bay instead, which had been completed in 2024 but sat unused in a depot for the past nine months.
A spokesperson from the Seaton Foundation in Byron Bay confirmed it had donated funds to bring two sleep-buses to the area in 2023, but only one was delivered.
After the project failed to get off the ground in Byron Bay, the foundation agreed to send the completed bus to Taree instead.
Mr Stanton said he felt the $50,000 given to Sleepbus to complete a bus for Taree had essentially gone "down the drain".
"It may have helped one of the other groups get their bus finished, but Sleepbus should be held accountable for what they did with all the money."
Mr Stanton said the situation compelled him to make a formal complaint to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).
While a bus was ultimately delivered to Taree, Bob Nelson was required to sign a contract ordering him to remove all Sleepbus logos from the vehicle before use.
The contract, seen by the ABC, also orders Mr Nelson not to make any "disparaging comments" about Sleepbus and its employees, or the condition of the bus delivered to Taree.
Sleepbus CEO Simon Rowe has not responded to repeated requests from the ABC for comment on this story.
Of the 11 finished Sleepbuses in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, only three are in operation, under new brand names — at Redcliffe and Hervey Bay in Queensland, and Queanbeyan in New South Wales.
In Taree, Bob Nelson said he had committed to seeing the service up and running within the next few weeks rebranded as the Bed Inn Bus.
"If you can provide a safe place for someone to sleep for one night, I mean that's enormous," he said.
While the road to receiving a bus has been difficult for some communities, others have had glowing experiences with Sleepbus.
Bronco Jensen was the driver for a Sleepbus in Hervey Bay in Queensland and estimated that three people used the bus each night before it closed in January.
"Unfortunately, probably the majority of people who use the bus are there due to domestic violence," Mr Jensen said.
Mr Jensen said the service was urgently seeking volunteers after Sleepbus stopped managing the service.
It rebranded its bus as the Rotary Hervey Bay Z Bus.
"It takes a small village to get the service going before it even leaves the gate," he said.