A bus built to provide homeless people with a safe place to sleep, and funded through charitable donations, is under investigation amid claims it's failing to deliver on the promised service.

Sleep Bus claims to be able to provide 8030 sleeps a year for the homeless, but those living on the streets claim they have rarely seen the bus since its launch three years ago.

Director Simon Rowe started-up the charity in 2015 with a GoFund Me page that raked in more than $144,000 and remains open.

Sleep Bus is raising more money to start-up a dedicated 'Pink Bus' aimed at helping survivors of domestic violence. Concerns have been raised that the charity is failing to deliver results

Sleep Bus director Simon Rowe takes hold of a giant, novelty cheque for his original Sleep Bus. The bus was sold as a possible solution to Melbourne's homeless problem, but few have seen it in the years since it was built

Sleep Bus director Simon Rowe is behind the wheel of the Sleep Bus charity. He is listed as a director alongside other family members. Questions are being asked about where the bus has been and what it is doing

He is listed as a director alongside family members Ethan and Harrison Rowe.

Mr Rowe told Daily Mail Australia the Melbourne bus was still being tested across the city and homeless people were using it.

'We've been conducting a trial and part of that was having to test the idea to make sure it was going to do what we needed it to do,' he said.

One Sleep Bus includes 22 individual 'sleep pods', USB chargers, televisions with auxiliary channels running adverts for pathways out of homelessness, two toilets, 22 personal item lockers, under-bus storage, eight pet kennels and a high-tech security, lighting and intercom system.

'The one in Melbourne has been going for two-and-a-half years,' he said. 'It's been in various places: Melbourne CBD, it's been out Pakenham way, Rosebud, Geelong, Bendigo - we've used it in all sorts of different places during the trial to make sure that it worked and we were understanding what different areas are like,' Mr Rowe said.

Daily Mail Australia contacted each of the city councils mentioned by Mr Rowe, and a couple of others - Wyndham and Frankston - and none, including Melbourne, had ever granted Sleep Bus a permit to operate there.

Most had never heard of the service.

Daily Mail Australia understands the charity is under investigation by the Australian Charity and Not-For-Profit Commission and Victorian Consumer Affairs over its failure to register for a fundraising permit.

Mr Rowe was under the impression he had the fundraising permit, but would need to check that with his legal team.

While the bus has been used to help emergency services workers since its launch in 2016, few homeless have sighted the bus since contributors slept in it for a media launch that year.

Back then, Mr Rowe claimed the bus was expected to operate in St Kilda - a beachside suburb known for its transient population.

However Port Phillip Mayor Bernadene Voss told Daily Mail Australia the bus had never rolled into St Kilda.

'Council was approached as a potential trial location by The Sleep Bus in 2016, however due to extensive concerns around management of the environment, risk management, behavioural management and support provided to vulnerable individuals on the bus, The Sleep Bus was never operational in Port Phillip,' she said.

'Council continues to work with agencies and advocate for well-designed and appropriately funded crisis accommodation.'

Now that Sleep Bus has gone public with a new fundraiser - a Pink sleep bus aimed at helping domestic violence sufferers - Melbourne's homeless are beginning to question whether the original service will ever be delivered.

Mr Rowe said the bus service had to be revised after being 'inundated' with demand from homeless people upon going active.

'That was a problem during the trial,' Mr Rowe said. 'We sat down with a consulting firm and they sort of said to us 'You only get one shot to do this and so you'd better do it right the first time',' he said.

Mr Rowe said the service had faced difficulties in getting permits from local councils, but the organisation was now gearing up for a 'more national launch'.

'We'll launch more new buses in the new year - a couple in Canberra and those sorts of things. So look, it's been a methodical thing.'

A Facebook page used by a large population of Melbourne's homeless claimed few have actually slept on the bus.

One charity worker, who wished to remain anonymous, stated she had slept on the bus during its launch in 2016, but had never seen it again.

'I guess you can’t keep asking for money and not produce any results,' she said.

Others who publicly challenged Mr Rowe's claims on the Sleep Bus Facebook page claim they were subsequently blocked.

The Sleep Bus was launched in 2016 after a wave of public support. A new Pink Bus is now being created. Some question if the bus will ever hit the streets in its actual intended capacity

Big Ideas: A diagram showing what Sleep Bus directors hope to achieve. They are currently seeking more cash to fund another bus for survivors of domestic violence

In March, Mr Rowe claimed contributors would be able to track exactly where their money had gone.

'This year Sleepbus LIVE will be launched, showing where your money is, how many safe sleeps each bus has provided, how many women versus men, age as well as tracking locations', he told Beauty's Got Soul.

'100% of your donation goes directly to maintaining and providing the sleep bus, and as most people assume, it isn't going to pay for head offices salaries.'

While the Sleep Bus website claims to provide clarity for everything it is doing for the homeless, most of the links still remain 'under construction'.

Its financial information on the Australian Charity and Not-For-Profit Commission provides little insight into where the money is going.

Sleep Bus director Simon Rowe says he's a 'hater of bulls**t' and a 'storyteller'

Inside the Sleep Bus: Questions have been raised as to whether it will deliver the intended service

And end of financial year charity drive has been launched to raise money for another Sleep Bus for survivors of domestic violence

The registered charity's last visible annual report from the year ended June 2017 shows that 'employee expenses' accounted for $130,337 in a year it raised $188, 970 from donations.

Mr Rowe denied he had failed to lodge his financial reports and blamed the commission for failing to publish them.

'I've got an email from the commission saying it is an error on their side and that the financials are there,' he said.

He explained the expenses paid to employees covered servicing the Sleep Bus.

'We have security people on the bus all night at $50 an hour, on 12-hour shifts, seven days a week - that adds up so that's where that money goes, so I don't think that's unusual,' he said.

Concern among Melbourne's homeless and charity workers has reached boiling point as Mr Rowe ramps up his fundraising efforts for the 'Pink Bus'.

Mr Rowe is asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the bus, calling on well-meaning Aussies to hit up their bosses to make 'big donations'.

The charity has already raised $71,199 of a $100,000 target for the 'Pink Bus'.

'Since 2016 he has raised a huge amount of funds and other than some photos of some work being done on a few buses, there is little evidence of it being used for the purposes that was outlined,' one concerned person posted online.

'When a charity has a website that almost entirely funnels to fundraising but lacks basic contact information and an About page, I have questions.'

'Tried to contact them, and find location, about a year ago for a rough sleeper to no avail,' another wrote. 'Disappointing, especially seeing they have received a lot of funding.'

Sleep Bus director Simon Rowe (right) takes hold of another cheque. The charity has raked in hundreds of thousands in donations

Melbourne Homeless Support Group administrator Chris McSweeney told Daily Mail Australia Mr Rowe refused to answer questions about the bus.

'I’ve been blocked from the page for asking about the bus,' he said.

'It seems anyone who asks about where the bus is will get blocked or their comment hidden.

'This page has over 6000 members. Most of them are people from Melbourne who have experienced homelessness at some stage.'

Mr Rowe said he had been contacted by a couple of organisations who wanted to know what was happening and he had 'told them as much as (he) could' but had blocked some who become offensive.

'We had to stick to our strategic plan and that's kind of where we're at,' he said. 'Some of them got quite nasty so that's fairly normal.'

Mr Rowe said the service had been reduced in recent times as finances dwindled.

'I've worked my butt off, I've shown everybody with videos, and that sort of thing, where our money goes. We build buses, we get them out on the road.'

Mr Rowe declined to reveal where the bus was currently located.