Church’s mobile shower gives hope to homeless and poor

Never underestimate the power of a shower.

“If you’re dirty, you can’t get a job, you don’t feel good about yourself. ... You give up hope,” Kevin Dole, homeless for about seven years, told Church in the Park President Dean Dodd earlier this year.

The aim of Church in the Park’s Cleansing Hope Shower Shuttle, which launched in early August, is to help the homeless and poor regain some hope through the simple act of taking a warm shower at least once a week.

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“It makes me feel like I want to get a job, do something with my life. I’m clean now, do something productive,” said Jack Eldridge, who’s been homeless off and on for eight years.

He showered one recent Thursday morning as the shuttle was hooked up to the water supply at the Modesto Gospel Mission on Yosemite Boulevard. Eldridge said he’s there nearly every Thursday, and if he misses it for work or some other reason, he catches up to the shuttle at The Salvation Army the next day.

He’s able to shower pretty regularly at his mother’s and father’s homes, or at a friend’s, Eldridge said, but the shuttle saves him from “bugging” them as much. He said being able to shave, shower and get fresh socks and underwear through Cleansing Hope is “awesome.”

“People aren’t going around saying I stink or tease me or anything,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of friends who come here, too. I’ve been telling everybody I know in the airport (neighborhood), ‘Hey, take a shower.’ A few people have.”

Church in the Park volunteers built Cleansing Hope from a donated 2003 Ford E-450 Super Duty 2003 shuttle bus. The seats were removed and the inside remodeled to accommodate two spacious shower and changing areas, a linen cabinet and a tankless water heater.

The shuttle operates four days a week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Dodd said: at Vine House Ministries, 523 N. Martin Luther King Drive, Mondays and Wednesdays; Modesto Gospel Mission, 1400 Yosemite Blvd., Thursdays; and The Salvation Army Modesto Citadel, 625 I St., Fridays.

A Book of Dreams donations will help maintain the shuttle and cover insurance and other costs, like hygiene supplies and the expensive disinfectants used to clean the bus, Dodd said. “Thirteen hundred sixty-six showers,” he said recently, giving a tally of showers taken since the shuttle’s launch. “That’s 1,366 pairs of socks, 1,366 pairs of underwear that have gone out. We need an ongoing supply of underwear and socks and disposable razors.”

Beyond continuing service, though, Church in the Park wants to create a second shower shuttle exactly like the first. “We’ve made it past the learning curve,” Dodd said. “Seeing this dream become a reality has been amazing. We have learned from our mistakes, we have learned to cut costs by buying in bulk.”

The shower shuttle has nearly 600 regular users and continues to pick up new ones. “We don’t have enough bus to go around, to supply the homeless population in Modesto,” Dodd said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 10:09 PM with the headline "Church’s mobile shower gives hope to homeless and poor."