Posted on 03/23/2015 5:03:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Lava Mae, a bus that provides showers and other basic hygiene services for the homeless, will soon expand its route.
Founder Doniece Sandoval launched the San Francisco nonprofit last summer. She currently operates buses Wednesdays through Saturdays in the Tenderloin and Mission Districts of San Francisco. The vehicles are old diesel buses from MUNI that were donated. In a video released for Lava Mae's launch, Sandoval said that outside of her efforts, there are only seven places in San Francisco where a homeless person can go to take a free shower and there are more than 3,500 homeless people on the city's streets.
"I just thought, if you could put gourmet food on wheels and take it anywhere, why not showers and toilets?" Sandoval said in the video.
Sandoval told Hoodline that if she gets approval, she will be able to bring Lava Mae to the Upper Haight in the next few months. She had near universal support at a meeting of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council last week.
I like it. It’s nonprofit and privately funded. I hope it stays that way.
Glad they serve half-man, half-woman
Lazy San Franciscan Uses Baby Stroller to Tote 12-Pack of Beer
It being SF I imagine Health Dept and EPA regs have been waived.
Non Spanish speaking schizophrenics might have a problem with that Lava thing.
It's been done before but the shower-ees never seem to appreciate the service.
:)
Catering to the lazy free of charge appeals to some people. Incubating sloth and dependance will bear the same.
Just stay out of my yard and out of the way of those that wish to contribute to society rather than leech off of it.
With the number of homeless skyrocketing in Denver, they may need a couple of those buses to cruise around for the “laid back bunch” that has acquired the Colorado scene lately.
If they put the homeless in the back of a pickup, and then went through a car wash, then the homeless could get a shower and their laundry done at the same time!
I’d hate to be the one who has to clean those showers.
I used to work in Civic Center in SF. There's a public fountain on Market Street near U.N. Plaza. From time to time I would see homeless "bathing" nude in that fountain in the morning, in full view of Muni buses passing by. There are more than seven places where they get a free shower! I've also been inside some of those shelters, seeing how the homeless are catered to with laundry equipment, recreation equipment, free telephone usage and other amenities courtesy of the taxpayers. These services act as a magnet drawing homeless to SF, making a bad situation progressively worse, soaking up ever increasing funds from a fixed budget pie. Madness.
Well I can understand how the fairly moderate climate would tend to draw them.
Around here the occasional -20F winter seems to cull the herd.
Glad they serve half-man, half-woman
I think that half man half woman symbol is supposed to symbolize servicing of trans-whatever peoples, those who are confused about sexual identity and all that?? So the people on the bus can feel good about liberal they are, catering to the trans-whatever homeless, so the trans-whatever homeless don’t feel left out.
On side of bus from left to right ...
Women ... Men .... ???? .... handicapped
I agree, but don’t worry, somebody here will come up with a reason to bash on the program.
The very mild climate draws people in, along with the robust economy here. However, the jobs require high skills and there's lots of competition, and the extremely high living costs sink people forcing them onto the streets, adding to the homeless that wander in. The lib politicians exacerbate the situation by providing all the services, which entices the homeless to stay. It's a real mess. If I were in charge, I would incarcerate them all in camps on an island like Treasure Island; after all there are vagrancy laws (that aren't enforced). It would be cheaper than all the millions they currently throw away on homeless programs.
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