By Kathy Chouteau
As Safe Organized Spaces (S.O.S.) Richmond knows all too well, a warm shower has the transformative power to heal.
So when its only shower trailer serving the unhoused population experienced a debilitating collapse last week on Macdonald Avenue, the nonprofit acted quickly. Now, it’s appealing to the community to step forward during the season of sharing to support its programs with donations, and also help it purchase a new shower trailer.
“Our showers collapsed on us in the street just last week,” said Daniel Barth, S.O.S. Richmond’s executive director. “Hopefully…we’re going to be inspiring the community to support us once again, as Chevron did the first time in 2020, so that we would have new showers in the new year.”
Barth emphasized the profound impact of a warm shower for someone living unhoused: “It’s dignity, it’s being cared [for], having care, and it’s an essential need,” he said. “It also means getting clothing, and that clothing with the shower, plus some food, might be the actual next step that one needs in order to then go out and come to the Wellness Center and start taking care of some immediate issues in front of them.”
The nonprofit’s flagship Safe Harbour Wellness Center on Harbour Way offers a full scope of programs designed to help the unhoused someday become housed.
Barth said that the first thing S.O.S. offers at its Safe Harbour Wellness Center is a place of rest for those without homes—a spot where they can sit down, have some coffee and food. “A place to land is the most important thing to provide,” he said, noting that those the nonprofit serves can feel grounded at that location.
The Safe Harbour Wellness Center also offers peer staff who support them, with resource navigation so that their needs can be identified. Services at the site, many through partnerships with other organizations, can include acupuncture, massage, a shuttle to a nearby shower if needed, medical, resources to housing, training and more.
Barth said there are 22 partner organizations that provide services at that center as well as thousands of unhoused people who come into it from encampments on an annual basis.
“We’re an employer first and foremost,” said Barth about S.O.S. Richmond, which counts many of the formerly unhoused on its own staff.
One cornerstone supporter of S.O.S. Richmond since its inception has been Chevron Richmond. “In the beginning, the seed money of $20,000 was so that we could buy the shower trailer,” Barth said, noting that the discounted unit was purchased during COVID when public showers were unavailable. Chevron’s funding made ‘shower power’ happen.”
That essential partnership has continued over the years. “This year, their $40,000 is helping to keep the doors open to the Warm Hand Wellness Center,” Barth added, referencing another center located underneath South Second St. and the 580 overpass in Richmond. “We’re keeping the doors open [there] because of Chevron.” Barth hopes, with Chevron’s bridge funding, eventually the City of Richmond will contribute funding for it in the new year.
S.O.S. Richmond’s overriding aim is “to support our unhoused neighbors on their journey to health, housing, income and personal goals,” according to Barth.
The organization hopes community members will step up during the holidays to help fund a new shower trailer and sustain critical programs like the Warm Hand Wellness Center. Barth said the center is special for folks to come in off the street, get shuttled over to the Safe Harbour Wellness Center, to then convene with service providers with beneficial services.
“We have a provider here right now that is doing a housing clinic, and so folks have access to therapeutic engagement, taking care of their personal needs, taking care of their income and housing needs right here at one place,” he said of the Safe Harbour Wellness Center.
Donations during the season of sharing can be made through the nonprofit’s website under “How You Can Help” and then “Donate.”
