A one-time homeless man has quit his job, raised $58,000 and bought a coach in his quest to provide a free bus for the homeless to sleep in this winter.

Desperate to help those forced to doss down in shop doorways and parks, Simon Rowe has named June 1 as the start date of the 90-day pilot of his 22-bed Sleep Bus.

Simon Rowe inspects a coach he plans to convert into a free Sleep Bus for the homeless this winter. Credit:Simon Schluter

In a two-month appeal on crowdsourcing site GoFundMe, Mr Rowe has raised $58,000 of the $85,000 needed to fund the pilot.

"It will happen," he said.