Fitted with both individual and family pods to provide a temporary and safe night’s rest the Bundaberg sleepbus is edging closer to completion.
The ex-city passenger bus from Melbourne is currently being transformed into Bundaberg’s first-ever sleepbus, providing a safe space for the region’s homeless to sleep.
The fundraising initiative to bring a sleepbus to the Bundaberg Region began last year, with $100,000 raised by the community through various events and donations from individuals, organisations and businesses.
The fundraising effort was led by the Bundaberg Region the Bundaberg Housing and Homelessness Forum.
Sleepbus Founder Simon Rowe said the bus would provide a safe, temporary overnight accommodation service, getting people off the street by offering an immediate, first stop, cost-effective solution for society’s most vulnerable.
While delivery of the Bundaberg sleepbus has faced delays, work continues around the clock to complete the project.
Simon provided a video update on the progress of the build, which he said included a caretakers’ cabin and sleeping pods with removable interior walls for families.
“This will be a very large caretakers’ cabin, we will have twin bunks… for the caretakers,” Simon said.
“All the pods have walls now.
””It’s all wired up and we’ve got our walls and then we put our floor in after and then our beds.
“It’s at the stage now where I can put lining inside and make it all look pretty.”
Simon said Bundaberg sleepbus was progressing nicely, and the next step would be to paint it inside and out.
“It’s a tricky bus this one, because of the different levels in the back area over the engine,” he said.
“We are going to have a big pod here, nice big pod, and an interconnecting door so we can make it even bigger, so if we have a big family or something like that we can look after them.”
He said volunteers would be essential to support the running of the service in Bundaberg while sleepbus would be providing everything else involved, thanks to ongoing donations supporting the not-for-profit organisation.
“When the service launches, there is an online roster that our volunteers can pick and choose the shifts they want,” he said.
Anyone wanting to register interest to volunteer to assist the Bundaberg sleepbus can do so by clicking here.
To stay up-to-date with the Bundaberg sleepbus project click here.
