Hope’s Village is ending free shower program in SLO after 5 years. Here’s why
A program that offered free mobile showers to unhoused people in San Luis Obispo ended on April 22 after more than five years.
The Showers of Hope program, which celebrated its five-year anniversary in September, stopped due to a lack of volunteers, said organizer Becky Jorgeson, founder of the nonprofit organization Hope’s Village of SLO. Instead, she said, the group will focus its efforts on creating a tiny home village.
The free pop-up shower and care program launched in September 2016 with a $25,000 donation from French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo.
In 2016, Hope’s Village covered the rest of the initial $37,000 cost of the program through fundraising — buying the mobile shower unit from a company on the East Coast, Jorgeson previously said.
In addition to weekly showers, Showers of Hope provided clothes, food, haircuts, vaccinations, tarps, backpacks and more. The program went from serving six people at its inception to offering 52 showers every Saturday.
“Although we had to close down for many reasons ... we were in our fifth year and provided almost 6,000 showers,” Jorgeson wrote in an email to volunteers. “Some folks got jobs, and some got housing — thanks to you!”
“I want to thank our donors, partners and others who helped over the past five years,” Jorgeson wrote. “Everyone was healthier because they got to get clean at least once a week.”
The Hope’s Village shower program dropped from 19 volunteers to six in recent months.
Two volunteers moved away, other were concerned about being exposed to COVID-19, and some had reached their limit of being able to help out after years of serving, Jorgeson said.
“We certainly cut down on the passage of disease among the homeless population,” Jorgeson said. “We got every single one of our guests and our volunteers vaccinated (against COVID-19).”
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Rather than focus on free showers, Jorgeson said, Hope’s Village wants to save its resources and donors’ money to put into “a tiny home village, which I’m hoping and praying we get.”
Such a village would save taxpayers $2 million by getting “50 more chronically homeless people, with nowhere else to go, off the streets,” Jorgeson said.
“Not everyone is eligible for disability, nor does everyone belong on welfare,” Jorgeson said. “There is so much talent going to waste on the streets. And we intend to utilize that talent for the good of the community at large.”
In the meantime, Jorgeson noted, another local group will continue helping people get clean.
The nonprofit Shower the People program, which partners with the San Luis Obispo public library and Unitarian Universalist Church, also offers free mobile showers in San Luis Obispo County.
“We thank Shower the People for coming in and taking over and will be sending our folks to them,” Jorgeson said.
Shower the People — which operates Sundays, Tuesdays or Thursdays in San Luis Obispo and Wednesdays in Grover Beach — has a trailer with three private bathrooms, each equipped with a sink, toilet and full shower, according to its website.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 9:39 AM.
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