Posted on 01/01/2012 3:50:38 PM PST by SJackson
An unusual program to help homeless people do their wash is being booted from the Madison laundromat where it has been operating for the past six months.
Around 50 homeless people a month have been taking the bus to Laundry Land at 1131 N. Sherman Ave., where they get free detergent, coins for the machines and a temporary loan of clean clothes, since some people walk in with only the clothes on their backs, says Donna Asif, an advocate for the homeless.
She set up Project Bubbles to be a companion to a service providing showers for the homeless she established in the basement of the First United Methodist church downtown in 2007. Keeping clean is no little thing even for people who lack big things like food and shelter, she says. She has seen grown men bury their heads in their towels and cry after having their first shower in days and changing into a freshly laundered set of clothes.
Asif says she is "terribly disappointed" that management at Laundry Land is ending the program there Thursday, Dec. 29, but grateful they gave it a chance.
"They were resistant from the beginning, but willing to try," she says. "They were worried that people would just loiter, that other customers wouldn't be happy, that there would be drinking on the premises," she recalls of her initial conversations with laundromat managers.
None of those things happened, she says. But there were other behaviors some people found peculiar. One fellow, for example, spread all of his clean belongings out on a table into piles, folding and refolding them for a long time.
"His backpack was his closet," Asif says. She suspects he was enjoying the thrill of finally having his worldly possessions clean, organized and fragrant. But it made management uncomfortable.
Another time a homeless person suffering from incontinence put his soiled pants into the washer. Asif doesn't see how that is much different from parents who toss their toddlers' dirty clothes into the machines, but it was the final straw for management, she recalls.
Shortly before Christmas, she got a call from the owner. Thursday, Dec. 29 would be the last day the facility would accept the program's coupons.
A Laundry Land staffer reached on the phone said helping homeless customers ended up "taking too much time." This staffer would not give his name and talked only a few moments before hanging up.
"I'd love to do it but we can't anymore. It got to the point where helping them took away from our regular customers," he said.
It is one more loss, Asif says, in a year when "our homeless neighbors" have been shut out of former hang outs in the basement of the state Capitol and the downtown library (undergoing renovations).
The homeless get a bad rap for being unkempt, dirty and smelly. But it's usually not by choice.
"They want a hot shower and clean clothes just like you and me," she says. "They just don't have the access."
She knows homeless people who have washed their clothes in the lakes, in fountains, and in the sinks of city hall and the Capitol. Hot air grates make good dryers. "Some of that you can get ticketed for," she says.
She has found another place where people who are homeless can do their wash: Affiliated Laundries on East Johnson Street. It is within walking distance of downtown shelters.
But because the facility does not have in-house staff, Asif explains, volunteers are needed to hand out the clean clothes, the soap and coins, which means that hours for Project Bubbles will be limited for now to just Monday afternoons, noon to 4.
The only other place people who are homeless can go to do a free wash is the emergency shelter run by Porchlight at the downtown Grace Episcopal Church, where lines are long and the dryers don't work well, says Kelly, a 50-year-old former Marine and chef. He became homeless after being laid off from a job in Wausau, and is a regular user of the shower and laundry programs Asif runs.
"I'm keeping clean," he says. "You could never even tell I was homeless if you didn't see my bag."
He is alluding to the sleeping bag he carries with him, along with a backpack containing a few changes of clothes, a chess set, and a John Grisham novel -- another bag with his warm winter clothing was stolen last week, he says.
Nobody wants to look or smell like the stereotype of a homeless person, he says. "People think you're dirty, a drunk or a thief," he says. Or even worse, he says, invisible. "People don't look at you," he says. "They just walk right on past."
***
Asif is looking for another facility willing to host the laundry program and volunteers interested in helping out with the shower or laundry program. If interested, contact her at 608-609-8522.
Different issue, but you're correct. Actually I think they started stripping funding under Carter, not Reagan. I could be wrong, doesn't matter who, this is probably one area government should be increasing funding.
You've sparked my interest... was it by choice? What led you to do that and why did you choose to give it up?
If I'm getting too personal, just ignore me... but I find this to be very interesting.
I know one fellow who is homeless (I think he still is, haven't seen him for a while). I know him from when he was a business owner. He actually chose to let everything go, got sick of it all and went packing on the streets. He was there for at least a couple of years, but I lost track of him some years ago.
Anyway... I was just curious. I donate quite a bit to the local Wheeler Mission and for some reason I've always had some sort of fascination and weird respect for the folks who live this way ... be it by choice or otherwise.
And, some people who might have been productive have taken to sponging when they lost hope, and that situation need not be permanent. It used to be quite normal for churches, temples, etc. to take people like this under their wing. Now it’s like, “I gave in my taxes at the office” and that doesn’t work very well because the cost of government supervised aid is enormous in both money and loss of integrity.
AMEN!
/johnny
The article referred to a laundry program in the basement of a downtown Madison Episcopal church, but said the dryers don’t work well. Probably those dryers were regular home dryers donated to the church program, not commercial dryers that could take the volume the program would require.
...there are laws that prevent the indiscriminate institutionalizing of people. Most of the street people are substance abusers and you just can't throw them into mental institutions.
The others obviously have severe mental problems such as schizophrenia and quite likely have at one time been under the care of family members or mental healthcare councelors. But once they stop taking their meds, they're gone..........
You're right, for some. Many, I don't know. Some are probably unemployable hash slinging or at Starbucks. For personal decisions, I can't say all, given the number of government programs available, I'll accept mostly. And if it's everyone, doesn't matter. We're discussing a charitable program (hope I'm not wrong on this), not a government program. IMO that's the best place for help to come from, so I wish the bubbles people success. And as to the beneficiaries not deserving, that's not a reflection on the charity.
As to the oilfield jobs, our government is doing everything it can to make sure they're not developed.
Unless you got a baby in cloth diapers?
Maybe the undertaking needed better supervision. Such pathetic pieces of clothing should be hosed down in a laundry sink before going into a washer. Still there are going to be stains. That’s what washers are for.
I agree. Getting some of the box stores to donate washers and dryers that could be set up in the basement of a church or homeless shelter would be a great solution. If the box stores can’t (or won’t) donate take up collections. Another solution would be asking people to donate their old machines when they get new ones. I have a friend who treats her washer/dryers like a car, she gets new ones every two years.
You....are a good person. Old FRiend, I'm not as charitable as you....I work too many hours I guess. So, I'll tell you and all on this thread a well kept secret, by 2017, America will be the largest EXPORTER of oil and natural gas in the world..... I have no tolerence for non-working people, and I am tired of going home and seeing some asshat with a "feed me" sign in a county with 2% un-employment.
“Would you want to use that washer afterwards? “
The article asked how is this any different than a parent putting a toddler’s soiled pants in? So I ask you how is it any different? A toddler can soil his/her pants just as bad as an adult.
I have one better you never thought of.
Cloth diapers are making a comeback with the economy and the high price of disposable diapers. How you feel about using a machine that had just washed a load of cloth baby diapers?
Both of 'em did, back in the day. Diaper service.
Picked up once a week, but think.. we had to have dirty diapers around for a week.
Damn straight I hosed them things out and they would never get in the wash with regular clothes.
Can you say Biohazard? I knew you could.
The new oil field booms seem to have a large critical mass behind them, and OPEC thus far isn’t moving to undercut them, something which killed past U.S. oil booms. It remains to be seen if OPEC would keep that same attitude if instead of Obama, a Republican — even Mitt — became president. But also, since these new booms pretty much depend on fracking, they are politically vulnerable. One fracking site, out of thousands, was suspected of getting oil into shallow aquifers. And the greenies are going ape crap over it, when such a low incidence problem if it’s even real (and not a coincidence of a local toxic materials spill) would probably be best addressed by piping in fresh water subsidized by the fracking companies.
If the US has such a sunny (hopefully not Sunni) future, the problem will largely reverse itself. Nobody will have to put cattle prods to street people. Streets suck compared to private living.
And they won't be an object of my charity.
But those that can't... I'd rather help in the private sector, where decisions can be made, than start a government program that the deadbeats will take over.
You would make a great candidate for a board-of-directors for a charity. The truly needy would get help, and deadbeats could hit the bricks.
/johnny
Back in the day, we used cloth diapers. We flushed them out, or hosed them down, and then washed them.
And then I did my ex-wife's laundry before mine. Ladies first, and all that. ;)
/johnny
The secret to sanitation is normal clothes dryers. Get to 160F or more and virtually all pathogens are dead, Jim.
I’m surprised anyone even noticed the poopy pants incident there unless they were so poopy that poop was left after the cycle, or smeared over the top of a top loading washer. And a little Pine Sol or bleach on a rag would solve the residue problem.
After Katrina, someone brought in a huge decked-out trailer with washers and dryers on it. I believe it may have been connected to Tide detergent’s advertising. The victims of Katrina, many who lost their homes, were grateful.
I have no doubt of the need.
I concede that.
But I know a business cannot survive with these people invading it every few days.
Many people are frightened of the homeless.Sometimes they should be.
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