I remember seeing this years ago, and as this article's date says "2017" that's probably when I saw it. I wonder what's happened in the 4 years between then and now, a quick Twitter search doesn't generate any hits, is he still around, if not, why not?
Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
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Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#22I remember seeing this years ago, and as this article's date says "2017" that's probably when I saw it. I wonder what's happened in the 4 years between then and now, a quick Twitter search doesn't generate any hits, is he still around, if not, why not?
Still around - Last FB post was March 14 looks like...
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#23Good for him. It must be a great boon to homeless people to have clean clothes; I know that I would feel very dispirited if I could not wear clean clothes on top of the already horrible situation of being homeless. But how come there are so many homeless people in the richest country in the world?
Because Americans don't have a culture of taking care of each other. They rely on the government to do it, government doesn't always want to, and the citizens don't demand that government does it. Source: am American & formerly homeless
It seems to me that people the works over think it is the homeless’s own fault they are homeless. That’s the problem.
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#24It's sad that one of the most richest places on Earth (the San Francisco Bay Area) is unable to house, feed, clothe and provide drug/alcohol/mental health treatment to a mere 10,000 homeless people. I know homelessness is more than "houselessness", but it seems like a pretty simple problem to solve. Even considering that other states bus their homeless to Calfornia, fixing the 600,000 who sleep outside (and the 1.5 m…
> [...] is unable to house, feed, clothe and provide drug/alcohol/mental health treatment to a mere 10,000 homeless people.
This shouldn't be surprising at all considering that the city is already spending money on anti-homeless programs, and the 10,000 people are the people who are homeless despite those programs. Housing those 10,000 is hard because the "easy" homeless people have already been housed, and the 10,000 left are the "hard" ones. In the same way, ensuring that your SaaS is up for 1 hour isn't really hard, but ensuring that your SaaS has less than 1 hour of downtime a year (99.99% uptime) is significantly harder.
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#25Good for him. It must be a great boon to homeless people to have clean clothes; I know that I would feel very dispirited if I could not wear clean clothes on top of the already horrible situation of being homeless. But how come there are so many homeless people in the richest country in the world?
Because Americans don't have a culture of taking care of each other. They rely on the government to do it, government doesn't always want to, and the citizens don't demand that government does it. Source: am American & formerly homeless
Americans will take care of their family and their community. This generally does not extend to a random homeless person.
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#26It's sad that one of the most richest places on Earth (the San Francisco Bay Area) is unable to house, feed, clothe and provide drug/alcohol/mental health treatment to a mere 10,000 homeless people. I know homelessness is more than "houselessness", but it seems like a pretty simple problem to solve. Even considering that other states bus their homeless to Calfornia, fixing the 600,000 who sleep outside (and the 1.5 m…
Other states do not simply bus their homeless to California. Their social workers will ask if they have a place to go. And if they respond they have a "cousin" in California the social worker sends them on their way.
My family member is a NYC social worker and there is a bit of nudging and winking when it comes to working with the homeless. His job is to get them off the street and out the shelter and into a home. Some of that can mean purchasing bus tickets to warmer climates. Since he can't actually fly out there and verify they have a "cousin in California" he has to rely on the client being truthful.
California has the unfortunate gift of being a coastal state with temperate, dry climate. Even if it was able to house all the homeless, more would show up because who wants to be homeless, wet, and cold when you can knock out the later 2 by moving to a warmer state.
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because Americans don't have a culture of taking care of each other. They rely on the government to do it, government doesn't always want to, and the citizens don't demand that government does it. Source: am American & formerly homeless
Americans will take care of their family and their community. This generally does not extend to a random homeless person.
> Americans will take care of their family and their community.
Given the numbers of homeless, obviously many do not. Not even for vets who risked their lives and gave their physical and mental health for their country.
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because Americans don't have a culture of taking care of each other. They rely on the government to do it, government doesn't always want to, and the citizens don't demand that government does it. Source: am American & formerly homeless
Of course the article is about someone who does take care of others instead of waiting for the government to do it. Hopefully there will be more people like that in the future.
This wasn't pure charity. This is religious outreach, proselytization.
>> Powers saw a way to address a need in his community and share his faith in the process. A devout Christian, he wanted to shift from discussing the teachings of the church to living them out by helping others.
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#29I'd be quite interested how he meets the power requirements, is he using electric dryers? I feel like a vans alternator has no hope of running 1 let alone 2 of them. Also what does the freshwater/wastewater system looks like?
Here is a video explaining his setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE8rgFAOXgY
Re: Engineer Converts Used Van into Mobile Laundromat, Offers Free Loads to Homeless
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because Americans don't have a culture of taking care of each other. They rely on the government to do it, government doesn't always want to, and the citizens don't demand that government does it. Source: am American & formerly homeless
Americans will take care of their family and their community. This generally does not extend to a random homeless person.
Isn't a random homeless person part of their community?