What you wear impacts how you feel and how others treat you. If fashionable and well-fitting clothes make a positive impact what effect do dirty and odorous clothes have?
It’s hard enough for kids experiencing homelessness to be wearing someone else’s clothes to school but when they are dirty and have an odor it exposes them. It’s difficult for a homeless man or woman seeking employment to get a new job if they are wearing dirty clothes to an interview.
One of our goals in 2020 was to transform the Laundry rooms for the men and women in the Recovery programs. Over the years people have donated washers and dryers and Oscar, our repairman, would try to fix them. I gave him the nickname Jesus because he had to keep resurrecting the machines! What was really needed were heavy-duty COMMERCIAL machines given the amount of people using them on a daily basis. Residential washers and dryers last about 10-12 years but in an institution they get over-used and abused. They don’t have a very long life. Speed Queen Commercial machines can last twice as long. Deed and Truth set out to raise funds to upgrade the laundry machines.
Thanks to Deed and Truth donors we were able to complete the project. Altogether we replaced 18 old and tired washers and dryers with new top of the line Commercial machines. These are designed to handle the volume of use that the program families need. We have also added monitors for the men’s laundry room to assist and make sure the machines are being used properly in an effort to extend the life of the machines.
A special thanks to those who gave specifically for this project and for all of you who donate to enable us to show the love of Christ to those experiencing homelessness at the mission and Hope Gardens in tangible ways that affect their daily lives.