Local non-profit organization Food with Friends is doing something unique in Clark County: it’s offering people living on the streets a free hot shower through a mobile shower cart service. The organization, which has served individuals and families living outdoors since 2016, started the shower outreach project in the winter of 2018. At present, there are no shower facilities like this available for people living unsheltered in the area. So, giving people the opportunity to take care of their personal hygiene through a simple shower is helping fill a steep need within Clark County. Currently, the project serves about 50 people a week at 2 different host sites on specific days and times.

Cherish DesRochers-Vafeados, founder of Food with Friends, explains that the organization started organically. She has served alongside other community members to help the homeless population for many years and during that time, she has developed a variety of meaningful relationships with people she meets on the streets.

After serving sack meals every Saturday on her own, her friends and family encouraged her to start an official non-profit organization. “Initially we thought we were only going to serve sack meals, so that’s why we came up with the name Food with Friends, as we were literally out having food with our friends,” Cherish says. “Over time, we grew and added more services, like the Shower Outreach Project. So now our name doesn’t quite mesh up as well as it once did, though we still go out and have food with our friends each Saturday.”

The mobile shower cart has two showers and two changing rooms, and the water is heated through propane tanks. Cherish explains that the unit was recently a victim of a hit-and-run, and it took some time to get it repaired and back into service. Now, the project is in full swing again and organization leaders are looking for ways that they can help reach even more people that need it.

The unit is on-site at Living Hope Church and Friends of the Carpenter on designated days and times. Currently, the organization is actively looking for more host sites to further expand their reach. Cherish shares that it’s easy to become a host and only requires a few things: volunteers to help run the showers, a water spigot, power and a sewer clean-out. “We obviously want to serve more people,” she says, “and if host sites are flexible with the pickup and drop off times, I think we can add more services.”

In addition to the shower project, Food with Friends serves about 325 meals a month to unhoused people. The organization also offers an emergency weather outreach service, where volunteers distribute cold climate survival gear during inclement weather. Their goal is to help prevent weather-related injuries or deaths.

To help keep things running well, the organization has many business partnerships within the community. Last year, Bombas donated 5,000 pairs of socks for distribution and they are offering another donation this year that is expected to arrive soon. In addition, a local pizza establishment donates leftover pizzas every weekend and milk and juice are donated weekly from a local dairy. Cherish explains that working on these projects is a rewarding way to serve Clark County’s underprivileged. “We build real friendships with those we serve,” she says.

Looking at the future, Food with Friends wants to invest in more shower units while expanding their amount of host sites. They are in the process of an internal reorganization and will fill gaps if needed, but the goal is to remain volunteer-run and always keep relationship-building with the underserved at the forefront of their mission and operations. “We are 100 percent volunteer run, we are consistent, and our only agenda is truly to serve people in our community,” Cherish explains.

Showers are available on Sundays from 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Living Hope Church’s Live Love Center (2711 NE Andresen Road, Vancouver) and on Wednesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Friends of the Carpenter (1600 W. 20th Street, Vancouver).

To learn more about their services, visit the Food with Friends website or call 360-723-5791.

Vancouver, WA — Cherish DesRochers-Vafeados and Jamie Spinelli work on a shoestring budget each week to help dozens of homeless people get the nutrition they need and get access to a warm shower.

Cherish is the president of the non-profit, Food With Friends, and its off-shoot organization, Shower Outreach Project, and works very closely with Jamie to find the funds and provide help to people in transition with their lives.

”We started doing street outreach,” said Cherish. “We knew where people needed help so we went straight to them. This was a few years ago. Now every weekend we hand out food to people who desperately need it.”

She said they work closely with Living Hope Church, Friends of the Carpenter and the Shared Day Center to meet people and provide food bags to the downtrodden. Donations come from various businesses, such as Little Ceasar’s Pizza, who provide pizzas, and individuals who want to help out.

They also drive a shower trailer Friday through Sunday. Each Friday, they stop the shower trailer at the Friends of the Carpenter non-profit. On Saturdays, from noon to 3 pm, they stop at the Shared Day Center, and on Sunday they stop at the Living Hope Church, from noon to 4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also helped out.

”We provide the shower trailer, the propane to heat the water, and the organizations provide the water,” said Cherish. “We serve about 75 people each week, and it’s great to help people. One man hadn’t showered in 35 days, now he gets to shower at least once a week. It makes people feel better.”

Cherish said a local organization once provided free shower wasn’t able to continue, so they decided to fill the gap.

Friends With Food purchased the trailer last year for $15,000 (at cost) from a man in Portland.

”We held a fundraiser and overnight we received $18,000 in donations,” said Cherish. “It was enough to pay for the shower trailer, so we were thrilled.”

Friends With Food/Shower Outreach Project is still working on logistics and seek help with a hauling vehicle for the shower trailer.

”We’re still figuring out the process,” said Cherish. “Thomas Eaton hauls the trailer for us. We’re grateful for his help.”

Friends served about 20 people per day with food and other counseling services, and recently received an inquiry from the Vancouver School District about reaching out to students who don’t have running water or electricity. They are also trying to get socks and underwear donated. Recently, a donor provided 1,200 pairs of socks.

“A lot of these people are waiting for housing to become available,” said Cherish. “They’re in transition, and we’re trying to help out.”

To contact Friends With Food, email: info@goldenrod-raven-651062.hostingersite.com or call them at 360.723.5791. You can also find them on Facebook @FoodWithFriendsWA

In 2016, now Battle Ground City Councilor Cherish DesRochers and her friend Jamie Spinelli, a case manager at Community Service Northwest, spearheaded an outreach program in Clark County called Food with Friends with a focus on bringing food, toiletries and other supplies to the homeless.

The outreach, described in simplest terms by DesRochers as a grassroots effort to fill gaps in service for the area homeless, quickly expanded and became an official nonprofit last year.

Along with the street outreach, they now do volunteer screening and training for emergency shelters and run a coordinated outreach hotline. Last year they partnered with an organization based in Portland called PERIOD., which was founded in 2014 and supplies feminine hygiene product kits to girls and women in need, to provide hundreds of tampons weekly throughout the Battle Ground school district.

The most recent gap they’ve discovered and are working to fill allows Clark County homeless the opportunity to shower for free — the Shower Outreach Project (SOP).

“When we learned the Share House downtown was eliminating showers we knew we had to do something,” DesRochers said.

They first looked into seeing if a portable shower in Portland could make a routine trip across the river, but were informed that it was too heavily trafficked in Multnomah County and could not make the time.

The next best solution was to acquire a portable shower of their own, so they called the builder who made the Portland one. He offered to sell them one for $15,000, discounted from $25,000.

DesRochers and Spinelli weren’t sure how quickly they could raise $15,000, so they decided while working toward that number, they’d also set a short-term goal of providing day passes for the Community Center. Their doubts around raising the funds were quickly sopped up.

“We put the info on our Facebook and raised the funds in less than 24 hours with the support of community members, Council for the Homeless and the Foundation for Southwest Washington,” DesRochers said. “And so, SOP was born.”

Their cart boasts two showers, both paired with changing rooms. The water is heated via two propane tanks and the access point can hook directly to a hose.

DesRochers said their urgency to fill the void left by the Share House is based on a number of factors. Being able to shower, she explained, provides dignity to those in a less than dignified situation, it helps to cut down on occurrences of hygiene related infections and conditions, and it provides joy.

“I had no idea how well received showers would be,” DesRochers said. “I’ve never seen so many smiles.”

One shower recipient told DesRochers she loved her, another said she was starting a new job the next day and being able to clean up was a major confidence boost. Boost in confidence is something DesRochers and Spinelli have observed from almost all who use the showers. They spoke of big smiles, an extra pep to steps, and sometimes even a little saunter and swagger.

Spinelli said the showers make difference socially. Many homeless are isolated, and have learned to function in this manner. But the shower, or rather the confidence that comes with it, opens them up and brings them together.

“It’s made me realize how valuable it is,” she said.

SOP has been in operation for about a month and is available only on the weekends, but word has spread fast and the need is apparent. DesRochers told The Reflector they were averaging about 15 bathers during a four-hour period, but during that same week they hit 25.

The biggest surprise, DesRochers and Spinelli agreed, was learning how long it had been since some of their visitors had showered. Multiple people have told DesRochers they haven’t showered in over a month. Spinelli said she recently spoke to a man who hadn’t showered in two months, and a woman who told her it was the warmest shower she’d had in almost a year.

As the popularity of the showers continues to grow, SOP’s goal is to find more host sites where homeless services are already being provided to reach as many people as they can.

Currently, they spread word of where the shower is going to be during their Saturday night outreach ventures and get the help of other nonprofits, case managers and other service providers. Contact information is also published in the local Pocket Guide. They hope to have an online printable schedule.

While adding more portable showers to their fleet is a goal, the next obstacle they are looking to overcome is finding a designated hauling vehicle.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Many people take at least one shower a day.

But for people living on the street, one shower could mean the difference between another homeless night or the first step toward something better.

The nonprofit Food with Friends has been around for only a year-and-a-half. It officially launched its mobile showers on Sunday behind The Chapel at Living Hope Church in Vancouver. The goal is to help the homeless, one shower at a time.

That means a lot for people who don’t have a roof over their heads. Living outside, especially in the winter, can be especially miserable. You can just ask Karma Jones.

“Last winter, oh goodness, I’m talking everything’s drenched. You’re drenched, you’re freezing cold, it’s just unbearable, it really is,” said Jones.

She has been homeless on and off since she was 18 years old.

“I don’t want to be out here. But it’s the fact of like I have to be. So you just gotta deal with it the best way you can I guess,” Jones said.

Dealing with it means a shower can be hard to come by.

Jones said sometimes people go weeks, months even, without a shower. But Jamie Spinelli with Food with Friends, wants to change that with the organization’s new mobile showers.

The trailer containing the two showers is relatively small, but they’ve already made a big difference for people who had the opportunity to try them on Sunday.

“I think most of the responses were, it was the first shower they’d had in a very long time and it was definitely the hottest and longest shower they’d had in an even longer time,” said Spinelli.

Spinelli said a homeless shelter in Vancouver stopped offering showers this past summer. To address the need, Food with Friends raised $15,000 in one day to pay for the mobile shower trailer.

She said without a shower, people could stay homeless longer. According to Spinelli, sometimes people who have not had the opportunity to take a shower in a long while, may be hesitant to interact with others or get help.

“It’s hard to get a job interview. There’s a lot of them that won’t even try because they know they smell bad or that their clothes are dirty or their hair is dirty,” Spinelli said.

She said a simple, hot shower means a lot to people who don’t regularly get the luxury that so many people take for granted.

“We’re people too. We have lives too. But we’re just struggling right now you know,” said Jones.

While Jones hasn’t tried the mobile showers yet, she said she can’t wait to take a shower in one. She said she hopes people treat the showers with respect so the showers aren’t taken away.

“We need it. People literally need it,” she said.

Spinelli said the next goal is to move the mobile showers around to different parts of Clark County. She said all they need is access to water, power and a sewer in order to run the showers that run off a tankless hot water heater.

They hope to be back at The Chapel at Living Hope Church next Sunday.

Spinelli said the goal is to raise more money to try and fund a self-contained mobile shower that will be easier to move around than a trailer.

Staff at Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office said Wheeler is interested in the mobile shower idea and is currently in discussions about how to secure private funding.

The program had its first run with the mobile showers on Sunday out at Living Hope Church.

Participants were treated to a hot shower, complete with soap, shampoo, rand razors.

Organizers say a lot of people don’t realize how important a shower can be, especially to those in the homeless community.

“When you live outside, you’re exposed to a lot of elements that you’re not exposed to when you live inside,” said Jamie Spinelli, the Vice President of Food with Friends. “Staph infections, MRSA and a whole variety of things that happen, just from not being able to clean yourself regularly.”

Food with Friends hopes this is the first of many shower outreach projects. Their goal is to perfect a way to provide the service and share their model at large.

Food with Friends aims to get the Shower Outreach Project, or SOP (like sopping wet), operational in the next few weeks. Last summer, local outreach volunteers looked into getting a shower trailer after Share House discontinued providing showers to unsheltered clients, citing wear and tear on the building and sewage problems.

Portland-based PDX Cart Builder finished building the trailer, which has two showers, and it was recently moved to Vancouver. However, it still needs to be insured, registered and otherwise made street legal. Jamie Spinelli, a volunteer with Food with Friends and a case manager at Community Services Northwest, said there’s ongoing fundraising for the operational costs of the trailer. Also, she said, they’re looking for locations that could host it. The trailer connects directly to water, power and sewer. Those sites could offer as many or as few showers as they want, and provide volunteers to help staff it.

“We’re working on solidifying a schedule with locations and volunteers,” Spinelli said.

The aim is to bring the showers to different locations in the county, not just downtown. Orchards, Cascade Park and Hazel Dell are a few targeted areas. There’s also the matter of gathering hygiene products, laundry baskets and towels, though Spinelli isn’t sure where they’ll wash the towels.

In the meantime, Food with Friends has applied for grants and bought about 40 day passes to the Marshall Community Center, so some people could take showers. Others, who are older or have disabilities, have gone without showers.

“It’s going to be a very welcome resource because they’re going to be able to a have hot shower,” Spinelli said.

As an outreach worker, she imagines that the shower trailer will provide an opportunity to connect with people who are homeless and living out of tents or cars.

After sewage backed up onto the first floor of the men’s homeless shelter in downtown Vancouver, shutting down the evening’s hot meal program, Diane McWithey knew the building had reached a breaking point. Something had to be done.

As of Tuesday, Share House no longer allows people who aren’t residents to shower at the facility or use the restrooms outside of meal times. It was the only local public facility that offered free showers to people who live outside, and there are few other places homeless people can go to use the bathroom.

“This was not an easy decision to make by any stretch of the imagination,” McWithey said. “We all feel horrible about it.”

McWithey, the executive director of Share, the Vancouver nonprofit operating shelters and other services for the homeless, along with Deputy Director Amy Reynolds, recently made the decision to quit taxing the building beyond what it can handle.

The 10,400-square-foot building just wasn’t designed for the large amount of people constantly using it every day. Fifty-nine men live there, and in the winter, another 30 men sleep on the cafeteria floor. It also opens up to the public for meals and had offered showers to people who don’t live there.

Trisha Pogue tried to shower at Share House as often as she could. After showering Thursday morning, she applied her makeup in the restroom next to the cafeteria.

“Just because I’m homeless doesn’t mean I have to smell like I’m homeless,” Pogue said.

The 35-year-old said she has been homeless for about five years and wishes Share could keep offering showers to people living outside.

“Where am I going to shower and use the restroom? There’s no place you can go,” she said.

Plumbing system taxed

Otha Common monitored a sign-in sheet as people arrived Thursday at Share House for lunch, served between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. He estimates that between 100 and 125 people come in for lunch daily. That translates to a lot of people using the restrooms, and that’s problematic for the plumbing system, Common said. Still, he understands why Share House’s director Katie Louis is distressed about having to stop offering that service to people.

“Katie wants to help everybody. She’s got a heart of gold,” Common said.

When Louis recently informed a woman that there was a space for her at a shelter, she got emotional reflecting on the bathroom situation.

“It’s just hard to think that if she’s not going in there, she’s not showering,” Louis said. “It’s not like there are more shelter beds.”

When the sewage problem happened on July 17, Louis already had a plumber on the way for a different maintenance issue. She said the indoor/outdoor carpet that was in the hallway between the bathroom and the cafeteria had to be ripped out and is going to be replaced with a different type of flooring.

The bathrooms, which have tile, were pressure-washed and cleaned with bleach. In the meantime, dinner couldn’t be served, so Louis called upon outreach groups that serve meals to people outside. They fed people who were already gathered, waiting for dinner to start.

Share later posted notifications about the change in the restrooms and showers.

The restrooms used to be open between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily for anyone who needed to use them. And every day there were 10 slots for people to sign up to use the five showers at Share House, but sometimes up to 15 people would take showers depending on emergencies and people’s needs. That included pregnant women and people with incontinence issues and disabilities.

“It’s very difficult to tell somebody standing in front of you asking for a shower, who has soiled themselves, ‘no,’ ” Louis said.

‘More than it can handle’

Share House was built in 1998 after the previous one was destroyed by arson in 1996. The facility at 1115 W. 13th St. opened Jan. 2, 1999, and is the only shelter in Clark County housing single men.

The architect who helped design Share House, Randall Salisbury, warned McWithey before he died in 2013 that the building was not built to accommodate so many people. He said the wear and tear would result in major costs down the road.

Salisbury was right, and that time of major maintenance needs has arrived. Costs so far this year, about $20,000, are greater than all of last year, McWithey said.

“We’re breaking down the building,” she said. “We’re just using the building for more than it can handle.”

It might be hard to tell, but the walls were recently repainted. With all the people who come through, they’re already dirty and chipped. Push bars, hinges and locks on the doors are often replaced because so many people come through Share House’s doors every day.

Vancouver Housing Authority owns Share’s two family shelters — Orchards Inn and Valley Homestead in Hazel Dell — so the housing authority takes on the costs of repairs. This year, improvements to those two shelters, along with YWCA Clark County’s SafeChoice Domestic Violence shelter, are estimated to cost $543,200. The city and county are covering most of the cost through Community Development Block Grants.

Share House, however, is owned by Share. The responsibility of soliciting bids, scheduling contractors to fix repairs and ordering replacement parts falls on Louis. She’s a trained social worker, but maintenance is becoming a bigger part of her job.

‘Horrific problem’

Back in 1998, Share never imagined Clark County would have the homelessness issues it has now. Back then, the nonprofit only worked with the men who lived at the shelter.

“And now it’s changed. The landscape has changed,” Louis said. “You have to have relationships with everybody who’s outside.”

During a single-day census of the homeless population taken Jan. 26, caseworkers and volunteers counted 269 people living unsheltered. All those people need a place to use the bathroom.

In terms of toilets for those living around downtown Vancouver, there are two at Esther Short Park, and there are portable toilets at Share’s day center, which is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1600 W. 20th St.

“You have to organize your entire day around where you’re going to use the bathroom or shower or eat,” Louis said.

McWithey said the current alternative place to shower is the Marshall Center, off McLoughlin Boulevard.

“And that’s it. It’s a horrific problem in our community,” McWithey said.

When people can’t shower at one of Share’s shelters, “we’re commonly the next option,” said Andy Meade, the Marshall Center’s director.

Anybody, regardless of why they want to use the public facility, can pay a daily drop-in fee that allows access to the locker rooms, gymnasium and fitness center. (The pool is currently closed because it’s under construction.) The drop-in fee is $6 for adults, $3 for youth and $4 for seniors. People who pay the fee are given a receipt, so they could leave the facility and return later in the day. The Firstenburg Center at 700 N.E. 136th Ave. is slightly more expensive with a drop-in fee of $7 for adults, $4 for youth and $5 for seniors.

Of course, the day-pass fee isn’t doable for everyone living unsheltered. McWithey said Share has not started the process of buying day passes, but that’s not off the table.

The Salvation Army is including a single shower room in its new Washougal building, but that’s a ways from the concentration of homelessness in Vancouver. While construction is moving along, it’ll be about another month until the shower — and the rest of the facility — is up and running. Washougal’s Captain William Clark Regional Park used to have private showers, but those were problematic and shut down years ago.

McWithey said a solution to the lack of restrooms, showers and laundry facilities for the homeless would be a new day center. The city of Vancouver was not able to get a sewer easement at the current day center that would’ve allowed for construction of restrooms, showers and laundry facilities. Originally, the city envisioned building a new 3,000-square-foot center on a vacant strip of land across the street from Share House. But that’s not seen as the ideal location and the city has gotten backlash from people who live and work nearby.

Meanwhile, the city has not confirmed whether it will get $200,000 in funding from the state, and talks with Clark County about using deed recording fees to help cover operating costs have stalled.

So, Vancouver continues exploring possible day center locations.