Sleep Bus charity collapse raises doubt Mackay will get even one of three planned buses for homeless

The collapse of the national charity behind the local Mackay Sleepbus means that after raising hundreds of thousands locally for three buses, not even one is certain.

Australian Street Aid Project founder Kayleigh Brewster teamed with Orange Sky Laundry Mackay service coordinator Lisa Jamieson to bring a Sleep Bus to Mackay.

The collapse of a national charity may doom Mackay’s most vulnerable to sleeping rough, but the local company working with them won’t give up without a fight.

Australian Street Aid Project founder Kayleigh Brewster teamed up with Orange Sky Laundry Mackay service coordinator Lisa Jamieson for the Safe Sleep Mackay project that would help take children, adults and the region’s “most vulnerable” off the streets by providing three buses that could house 20 people a night.

Safe Sleep Mackay is now working to secure at least one, after the Melbourne-based parent charity folded earlier this month.

Ms Jamieson said Sleep Bus founder Simon Rowe had advised the group he was winding up his charity and would ceasing operations of the service across the nation from the Australia Day weekend.

“While communication with Sleep Bus is still open and ongoing, we are actively working towards securing the transfer of the bus purchased for the Mackay region,’’ she said.

The goal was for Sleepbus to 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, catching them early so they could get back on their feet.

“It was not the news that we wanted to be sharing, but we wanted to raise awareness of this unfortunate development with stakeholders and the broader community.”

Under the original plans the national charity Sleep Bus would have retained ownership of the buses and assumed responsibility for ongoing operations, such as maintenance, volunteer coordination and service delivery requirements, now Safe Sleep Mackay are looking at options to secure a bus for the region and to operate it via a local group instead.

The sleepbus would have been able to provide a bed for 20 people at capacity. Photos: Safe Sleep Mackay

The group raised $300,000 to go towards the construction of each Sleepbus which would offer safe, temporary overnight accommodation in climate-controlled individual sleep pods, with lockable doors and toilet as well as a TV screens, with a channel that would display numbers for support services.

Mackay and Sarina were supposed to get their own buses, and a third bus was planned for women and children.

In a message to supporters last year, Ms Brewster thanked the “major donors” which made it possible, including: Mackay Regional Council, Run for MI Life, BMA Benefiting My Community Fund, Mackay Community Foundation, Paradise Outdoor Advertising Doing Good Charity Program, Port of Mackay Rotary, Macrossan & Amiet Charitable Foundation, Freemason Lodges of the Mackay Region and the Gambling Community Benefit Fund.

That money was raised in under eight months.

It is unclear which of the three planned buses would be going ahead, if the local group can secure one.

After the collapse of the national charity, similar problems are being dealt with in Hervey Bay, Maroochydore, Ballina, Queanbeyan, and Sydney.

Sleep Bus relied on donations, with the national charity receiving over $850,000 in the 2023 financial year, and paying out $324,000 in wages to seven full-time-equivalent staff.

It spent $25,000 on travel and accommodation expenses, $11,000 on telephone expenses, $3200 on security, $3000 on cleaning, $4000 on computers, $2800 on food and $7600 on bookkeeping.

It spent $150,000 on bus building materials and $1000 on fitting out buses.

Sleep Bus had 170 unpaid volunteers that same year.

No more recent financial documents were available with the charity regulator.

Originally published as Sleep Bus charity collapse raises doubt Mackay will get even one of three planned buses for homeless