Ten years ago, Paul Gwilym was sleeping in a makeshift bedroom in the corner of the industrial unit where he ran his events business. Inside it was a desk, duvets, pillows, a microwave, a kettle and a bucket to wash in. “I slept on the floor,” he remembers. “Sleeping on your own in an industrial unit is quite scary. The noises you hear as well.”
Paul, 43, from Cardiff said he has always been a “hospitality person”, but he fell homeless in 2013 after his rented home was sold and he could not afford the upfront payment for a flat because he owned a dog. He slept at a friend’s house for a couple of nights before having the idea to stay in the industrial unit where he ran his business.
“I was a proud man. I didn’t want nobody to know. I got a business and I haven’t even got anywhere to live? Most nights, I’d just sit in town speaking to rough sleepers and when the sun came up, I came into work.”
Read more: Dozens of homeless families moved out of hotels to make way for Six Nations visitors
After six weeks of sleeping rough, Paul hit rock bottom. He drove to the Severn Bridge in the pitch black of night, left a goodbye message on his phone and walked to the edge. At that moment, Paul's dog barked from the car.
“It snapped me out of it," he said. "I almost became sober instantly. I thought 'What the hell am I doing?'"
It was another month before Paul confided in anyone about that night and he eventually mustered enough optimism and determination to get his events business growing again. “I went into work mode. I’m an all-in or all-out kind of guy. And I went all in.”
Ten years on, the Boomerang Cardiff founder is ready to turn the industrial unit he used to sleep in into a one-stop shop for community needs. The charity, based on East Moors Road in Splott, recently earned a £98,000 grant from Centrica’s Energy for Tomorrow social fund to fit the 'community village' with solar panels. The village will consist of ten shipping containers and three wellbeing gardens including skills workshops, three start-up businesses and a repair café.
Explaining how his idea for Boomerang came about, Paul said that while managing his events business he started to pick up freebies in his van and deliver them to people who needed it. One night with friends at Splott Conservative Club, Paul committed to starting a charity. Having spent time in Thailand and Australia when he was younger, he likened the Buddhist concept of karma to throwing a boomerang. He continued giving furniture like mattresses to people who needed it - but now, his charity had a name; Boomerang Cardiff.
“I was paying for the diesel, I was paying for my time. But people pay good money to go to wellbeing clinics. This was my therapy,” Paul said. “It was epic. All I wanted to do is help one hundred working men and now look at us.”
The Boomerang team now includes 17 paid employees, up from nine in 2020, and Paul estimates he could call on up to a hundred volunteers to help build the community village, which the charity hopes will be operational by October 2023. Once finished, the 'Empowering Communities' project will house three start-up businesses, a community coffee shop run by Cardiff company Gathering Ground and a temporary shelter for people without a home.
There will be a big focus on sustainability, too, made possible by solar panels on the rooves and a green wall around the perimeter. Paul also hopes to give families their own planters where they can grow food and swap it with others.
Based on figures from the past 16 months, Boomerang estimates it has saved over 13,000 items of furniture, or 275 tonnes of landfill, since its inception in October 2016. Another Cardiff company, Rhino Fire and Security Systems, plan to run weekly workshops at the village to give people experience in cabling and electric installations.
"I really want to bring back that community spirit," Paul said. "You're not just saving somebody money, you're stopping broken things from going to landfill, helping people have a conversation and sharing skill knowledge. It's about getting back to basics."
Paul is all too familiar with the emotional struggles faced by men and wants the village to include a dedicated space for them where they can feel comfortable enough to talk. Over 7,000 children in Cardiff have received a Christmas gift from Boomerang in the past five years and the charity is also supplying free sanitary products to 58 schools and community groups across south Wales.
“I’ve got so many ducks in order, so many people I’ve spoken to," he said. "Now, it’s just a case of ensuring that everything is all set in stone. The limit is what I make it. If I can stop one person from going where I went, every penny, every minute - it’ll be worth it.”
Boomerang Cardiff was one of four Welsh social enterprises to win a Centrica grant. Chair of the Climate Change Committee in the Senedd Llyr Gruffydd said: “The projects being supported by Centrica demonstrate the level of innovation taking place in Welsh communities today."
READ NEXT:
