Jamie Spinelli (right) assists Cherish DesRochers in cleaning out one of Shower Outreach Project’s two showers by handing her a “Sham-Wow” earlier this month when the portable showers were parked at Living Hope Church in Vancouver.
A volunteer checks a list of people who’d signed up to take a shower during their stop at Living Hope Church.
In 2016, now Battle Ground City Councilor Cherish DesRochers and her friend Jamie Spinelli, a case manager at Community Service Northwest, spearheaded an outreach program in Clark County called Food with Friends with a focus on bringing food, toiletries and other supplies to the homeless.
The outreach, described in simplest terms by DesRochers as a grassroots effort to fill gaps in service for the area homeless, quickly expanded and became an official nonprofit last year.
Along with the street outreach, they now do volunteer screening and training for emergency shelters and run a coordinated outreach hotline. Last year they partnered with an organization based in Portland called PERIOD., which was founded in 2014 and supplies feminine hygiene product kits to girls and women in need, to provide hundreds of tampons weekly throughout the Battle Ground school district.
The most recent gap they’ve discovered and are working to fill allows Clark County homeless the opportunity to shower for free — the Shower Outreach Project (SOP).
“When we learned the Share House downtown was eliminating showers we knew we had to do something,” DesRochers said.
They first looked into seeing if a portable shower in Portland could make a routine trip across the river, but were informed that it was too heavily trafficked in Multnomah County and could not make the time.
The next best solution was to acquire a portable shower of their own, so they called the builder who made the Portland one. He offered to sell them one for $15,000, discounted from $25,000.
DesRochers and Spinelli weren’t sure how quickly they could raise $15,000, so they decided while working toward that number, they’d also set a short-term goal of providing day passes for the Community Center. Their doubts around raising the funds were quickly sopped up.
“We put the info on our Facebook and raised the funds in less than 24 hours with the support of community members, Council for the Homeless and the Foundation for Southwest Washington,” DesRochers said. “And so, SOP was born.”
Their cart boasts two showers, both paired with changing rooms. The water is heated via two propane tanks and the access point can hook directly to a hose.
DesRochers said their urgency to fill the void left by the Share House is based on a number of factors. Being able to shower, she explained, provides dignity to those in a less than dignified situation, it helps to cut down on occurrences of hygiene related infections and conditions, and it provides joy.
“I had no idea how well received showers would be,” DesRochers said. “I’ve never seen so many smiles.”
One shower recipient told DesRochers she loved her, another said she was starting a new job the next day and being able to clean up was a major confidence boost. Boost in confidence is something DesRochers and Spinelli have observed from almost all who use the showers. They spoke of big smiles, an extra pep to steps, and sometimes even a little saunter and swagger.
Spinelli said the showers make difference socially. Many homeless are isolated, and have learned to function in this manner. But the shower, or rather the confidence that comes with it, opens them up and brings them together.
“It’s made me realize how valuable it is,” she said.
SOP has been in operation for about a month and is available only on the weekends, but word has spread fast and the need is apparent. DesRochers told The Reflector they were averaging about 15 bathers during a four-hour period, but during that same week they hit 25.
The biggest surprise, DesRochers and Spinelli agreed, was learning how long it had been since some of their visitors had showered. Multiple people have told DesRochers they haven’t showered in over a month. Spinelli said she recently spoke to a man who hadn’t showered in two months, and a woman who told her it was the warmest shower she’d had in almost a year.
As the popularity of the showers continues to grow, SOP’s goal is to find more host sites where homeless services are already being provided to reach as many people as they can.
Currently, they spread word of where the shower is going to be during their Saturday night outreach ventures and get the help of other nonprofits, case managers and other service providers. Contact information is also published in the local Pocket Guide. They hope to have an online printable schedule.
While adding more portable showers to their fleet is a goal, the next obstacle they are looking to overcome is finding a designated hauling vehicle.
