Royal recognition for homeless bus

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

“We become the family they haven’t got,” says Emily McCarron, 42, who has turned the spark of an idea to help rough sleepers into a community of support for people who have fallen through the cracks.

Emily and Eddie – both experienced rough sleeper support workers – toiled day and night to get The Bus Shelter Dorset established after being inspired to convert a double decker bus to house the homeless in Weymouth and the surrounding area. Now they have been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, after seeing their project go from a bus with no running water and no electric to an impressive community of private rooms in just six years.

The project was born in 2016, after they learned about a bus on the Isle of Wight that had been converted to house rough sleepers.

Emily said: “We went and visited and I thought, that’s it!

“That’s what we’re going to do.”

In March 2017 they won charitable status, with a few trustees and a bus donated by

Damory Coaches. They then recruited volunteers to help support the bus – one man took four months off work to convert it, installing beds with

USB points and lights and creating a living area with woodburner downstairs. With lots of people pulling together over the summer and with

Shelter is Dan’s lifesaver from chaos of drugs

Dan, 38, first came to the Bus Shelter just before covid hit in 2020 and has been back and forth, in between short stints in prison. He’s managed to kick heroin into touch, however he does struggle with other substances.

If prison sentences are shorter than 13 weeks, the shelter can keep their rooms for them.

Dan’s issues mushroomed when his relationship broke down in 2016. He started to take drugs again after finding there was no accommodation for him and the Probation Service were unable to find him anywhere. “Without somewhere to rest, my life became chaos,” he said.

“Now I hope for normality – no chaos.”

For Dan, who has worked as a labourer and forklift driver in the past but who is now looking for a fulfilling career, the shelter offers him what he needs to stay clean.

“I like having other people around,” he said. “There’s always people around here.”

It sounds simple, but all the little extra things staff do can make all the difference to someone vulnerable. While they take care of the bigger things too, such as trying to find training courses and fund them for residents, in many ways it’s the small things that keep residents calm and stable.

Dan said: “If you needed to go to the pharmacy to pick up a script you might set out on foot to go there and think it’s a bit far or something, or something else might happen and you end up going to get drugs.

“Here they give you a lift to the pharmacy and wait outside to take you back. That can save you.”