LavaMaeˣ powers cross-country spread of mobile showers and other essential care services for unhoused people
From NYC and New Jersey to Texas and California, 26 U.S. programs supported by LavaMaeˣ are reaching more than 24,000 people in 34 communities with streetside services
San Francisco, Calif., February 1, 2022—As the nation continues to feel the collective pain of homelessness in our communities, one simple act brings hope and dignity to tens of thousands of unhoused people: a hot shower offered in the spirit of serving a cherished guest.
LavaMaeˣ introduced this concept, calling it Radical Hospitality®, in 2014 in San Francisco. In 2019, the nonprofit began formally teaching and funding grassroots groups to bring its model of mobile showers and other essential care services to their own communities. The network of LavaMaeˣ-trained providers has grown rapidly throughout the pandemic, with 26 shower programs across the U.S. launching in the past two and half years.
These programs are a lifeline for unhoused people. To date they’ve provided 54,100 showers to 24,253 people. Some also have deployed handwashing stations—a DIY design LavaMaeˣ developed in response to pandemic conditions—and many work with partners to provide food and other services, such as laundry, haircuts, clean clothes, and access to job search and medical services, at their shower sites.
The difference this makes is profound—in the words of LavaMaeˣ guests: “It feels like you matter; you can come back and be successful.” “I walk down the streets with my head held high.” “When things seem impossible, there’s always tomorrow for a shower.”
LavaMaeˣ consulting and seed funding spread impact across America
While continuing to serve people on the streets of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, LavaMaeˣ has built a consulting program that guides shower startups through everything from wrangling city permits to outfitting a shower trailer to serving guests with Radical Hospitality and adeptly managing the challenges of street service. Through its partnership with Unilever’s The Right to Shower brand, LavaMaeˣ also supplies small amounts of funding.
Some mobile shower services begin with inspired individuals, some grow out of established volunteer groups, and others are projects of full-fledged community nonprofits. A few examples:
Streetside Showers (Texas and Florida). Thanks to Lance Olinski, more than 7,000 unhoused people have taken 13,761 dignity-restoring hot showers. Olinski was inspired to start Streetside Showers when he saw an unhoused man washing himself in a restaurant bathroom in McKinney, Texas. He flew to San Francisco for on-site training with LavaMaeˣ and launched service in his North Texas home base. In 2019 he received a $15,000 grant to expand to Palm Bay, Florida. Today, 200 volunteers and seven paid staff members run eight weekly shower stops in nine cities.
Brooklyn Community Services (New York). When this established nonprofit received a donated RV in 2019, leaders knew right away they wanted to use it to provide mobile showers for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. They worked with Ford Motor Co. and a local RV customizer to build out a custom rig and tapped LavaMaeˣ as a mentor and model, spending four days on-site absorbing the service approach and getting advice on shower configuration. BCS persevered through pandemic roadblocks to launch service in November 2020, with a $15,000 boost from LavaMaeˣ. Now it provides 60 to 75 showers a week and partners with soup kitchens, church groups and others to give guests access to other services.
S.H.A.R.E. Community (Antioch, California). A sister’s struggle with mental illness sparked Ricka Davis-Sheard’s interest in helping her San Francisco Bay Area community see unhoused people as neighbors. She founded the S.H.A.R.E. Community in 2019 and launched shower service in 2020 with the help of LavaMaeˣ’s Radical Hospitality training, consulting on partnership development and fundraising, and a $10,000 grant. Every Tuesday morning, S.H.A.R.E. offers hot showers and other care services next to the Dairy Queen in Antioch. Davis-Sheard says guests are “more open to using other services after talking with us and using our service, and they become encouraged to move on to the next steps [toward] getting housing and work.”