For the 6,436 homeless people who call San Francisco home, around 59 percent were unsheltered, according to the 2013 Homeless Point-in-Time Count report, meaning the bulk of these people don’t have access to a restroom or a shower.
In the entire city, there are currently only eight shower facilities for homeless people to use. As these facilities generally only have one or two shower stalls, there are only about 16 showers and bathrooms for more than 3,500 people.
Since the United Nations and World Health Organization define access to water and sanitation as a basic human right, Doniece Sandoval has made it her mission to widen the homeless population’s access to these services by converting old city buses into mobile shower and toilet facilities.
Known as “Lava Mae,” playing on the Spanish command “lavame” for “wash me,” Sandoval says she hopes this project, which will begin serving the community on June 28, will help reduce the rate of illness, unemployment and social isolation many homeless people experience.
“With hygiene comes dignity, and with dignity comes opportunity,” Sandoval said. “So hopefully, it will open other doors for people.”
According to the Lava Mae website, because real estate prices are so high in San Francisco, a mobile facility “ensures that our service isn’t subject to rising rents and potential evictions.”
“And perhaps more importantly, going mobile gives us the flexibility to reach the homeless who are scattered throughout our city.”
Since a city bus — let alone a retired city bus — has never been used as a shower before, the program will start small by offering people a chance to shower on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon, so the operators can see how everything works.
Two people will be able to shower at a time for no more than 10 minutes, which should help maximize the number of bathers. Each bus has two bathrooms, and each bathroom has a shower, sink, toilet and changing room. The buses will connect to nearby fire hydrants for the water supply, which Lava Mae is paying the city to use.
Tim Svoboda is the director of Youth With a Mission in San Francisco. He said Lava Mae is likely going to be a big asset to the homeless population in the city.
“Our showers are open every Friday afternoon and they are booked solid. Our toilet facilities are open every day of the week and are used nonstop,” he said of his organization’s facilities, explaining what a benefit the buses will bring to the communities they serve.
Kara Zordel, director of Project Homeless Connect, also applauded the project, saying, “A shower goes beyond having the opportunity to get clean. It provides a sense of empowerment and humanity that gives confidence in the face [of] life’s daily challenges. Without the ability to get cleaned up, how can anyone successfully pursue relationships, employment, or even permanent housing?”
In a campaign video put together by Lava Mae, the organization interviewed a handful of homeless people in the city and asked them about the troubles they’ve faced trying to get clean and what they thought of the project.
All shared how they have waited in long lines to shower or use a restroom and been kicked out of places such as the public library, where they used the restroom to freshen up. One woman said the city’s bed bug situation is ridiculous, and public health issues such as bed bugs prove that all people need to be able to shower.
Don Suiter, a homeless San Franciscan, agreed that the service is much needed. “My God, go three days without a shower. Just three days. Pretty soon, you just feel like a worm, a social worm.”
Since it cost Sandoval $75,000 to convert one bus into a mobile shower, she’s only created one so far. She is currently raising funds to renovate another bus into a shower facility by next year.
San Francisco may only have one Lava Mae facility at the moment, but the idea has caught on in other cities such as Los Angeles, and even other countries with large homeless populations such as Singapore and Brazil.