Residents, volunteers urge restoration of Shower of Hope funding; CAO says some shower and hygiene lines appear in funding report

Dozens of volunteers, faith leaders and advocates urged the Los Angeles City Homelessness Committee on June 25 to restore full funding for Shower of Hope and other mobile hygiene services that provide showers, toilets and hygiene supplies to people experiencing homelessness.

Advocates said the program is essential to public health and to helping unhoused Angelenos pursue work and housing. "A shower is a basic human right. It's a matter of decency and caring," said Erica Tamblyn, chair of the Safe Haven Bridge to Housing program at All Saints Episcopal Church. Volunteer Mel Filakaratna told the committee that Shower of Hope provided about 37,000 showers citywide last year and warned that several service locations in Skid Row were slated to stop operating at the end of the week.

Why it matters: Mobile showers and pit-stop hygiene services are low-cost, direct interventions that supporters say reduce barriers to employment, medical care and longer-term housing placement. Several speakers said reduced or eliminated funding would immediately disrupt services for thousands of people.

Volunteers described how the showers anchor other services. "The shower of hope is the anchor that attracts people to our church so that they learn about it, could take advantage of the other services that are there," Erica Tamblyn said. John Pelzer, a long-time volunteer, said the loss of three Skid Row locations would be a "real disruption" to people who rely on the service.

CAO clarification and funding lines: Sandy Lee of the City administrative officer's staff told the committee there is confusion between multiple hygiene programs. The adopted city budget removed funding for the Bureau of Sanitation's mobile hygiene center to restore sanitation positions, Lee said, but the Shower of Hope operated under LAHSA (the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) received funding in the adopted budget. The annual homelessness funding report before the committee also recommends city funding for several hygiene programs: Board of Public Works "Skid Row pit stop" mobile sites, a citywide pit-stop expansion and related litter-abatement services. Lee said those three programs are funded in the report; the separate shower program remains under the budget-motion process.

Committee response: The committee chair thanked the speakers and said the office had been responding to constituent emails and "working to restore this funding," though she added the funding may not be fully restored within the current report. The chair said the office and committee would continue pursuing other funding paths for the mobile hygiene services.

Ending: Advocates left the meeting with a pledge from committee staff to continue pursuing funding options and to press for transparency on which shower and hygiene programs are funded in the coming fiscal year. The CAO and LAHSA remain the primary agencies for clarifying which specific trailer- and pit-stop-style services will continue under adopted budget allocations and the committee-supported funding report.