LavaMae, a non-profit organization run by Doniece Sandoval and her husband, transforms unused old city buses into fully functioning showers for homeless people to use. The first of an entire fleet of shower buses was recently completed and Sandoval claims the intention of the program is not to end homelessness, but to bring back dignity through hygiene.
Long story short, these people are transforming a passenger vehicle into essentially a bathing facility. The first bus they’ve managed to turn into a shower bus is a 1992 Gillig Phantom, the ones produced by the Gillig Corporation in Hayward, California. The buses actually draw water from fire hydrants, and they each come with two individual pods equipped with a shower, a toilet, a sink and a space to temporarily store items.
LavaMae is a play on the phrase “lavame,” which means wash me in Spanish and the founder of the service believes that everybody has a right to be clean, referencing San Francisco’s 6,436 homeless residents who only have seven options of where to shower in the city. For the moment, around 30 people will be allowed to shower per day, but once the entire fleet will be up and running, Sandoval estimates that 2,000 shower could be provided per week.
According to Elite Daily, Sandoval raised $58,000 from an indiegogo campaign and other contributions from family foundations and friends, and also from herself and her husband. Each bus costs $75,000 to build, but even though she knows her project won’t end homelessness, it will manage to change something.
“What we are about is providing hygiene, because we believe that hygiene brings dignity and dignity opens up opportunity,” Sandoval explains in the promo clip they published on their website.
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