Sidley man builds shelters for Bexhill homeless community

A man from Sidley has taken it upon himself to improve the homeless situation in Bexhill and Hastings by building mobile shelters for rough sleepers.
Tommy Lake with Sab WillertonTommy Lake with Sab Willerton
Tommy Lake with Sab Willerton

Sab Willerton, 38, said he was inspired to start his mission when a friend took his own life soon after losing his job and becoming homeless.

Sab said he spoke about the incident with friends and concluded something needed to change to help our homeless community.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The builder said: “A few weeks ago, it just dawned on me. I’ve got all this material from work and I had this idea to build these shelters.

The mobile homeless shelter, built by Sab WillertonThe mobile homeless shelter, built by Sab Willerton
The mobile homeless shelter, built by Sab Willerton

“We can all identify that there is a serious problem but not enough people have the time or resource to make a substantial difference or contribution.

“Therefore, I took it upon myself to start doing what I’m doing.

“In my spare time – along with a new born baby and full time work – I started working on a project creating and making mobile homeless shelters and giving them away to help genuine people who are in need of a place to sleep and keep personal items safe.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The first homeless person to benefit from Sab’s mission was Tommy Lake from Bexhill.

The mobile homeless shelter, built by Sab WillertonThe mobile homeless shelter, built by Sab Willerton
The mobile homeless shelter, built by Sab Willerton

Sab presented a tearful Tommy with his mobile homeless shelter on Saturday.

Sab added: “Hopefully this will help (Tommy) realise that the world isn’t as bad a place as he may have thought and that there are genuinely nice people out there in the world that want to help.

“If anyone could help with a place to put the Wendy house (as Tommy named it) that would be fantastic.

“Anywhere in Bexhill town would be very handy.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sab decided he wanted to help other members of the homeless community after presenting Tommy with his homeless shelter,

With limited space at home, he plans to open a workshop but needs to raise money for a deposit and a couple of months of rent.

He added: “I have also already sourced most of the materials and have more available.

“I have already done the research on a premises which would be from the council. It is cheap enough and would come under small business rates.”

See more: