In May 2024, Boyle Street Community Services (BSCS) received a donation from the Humanitarian Aid Fund of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that provides long-term capital and operational funding for laundry services for people living rough in downtown Edmonton. The donation makes permanent the laundry facilities piloted as part of a hygiene hub in 2022.
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Response to a Shigella Outbreak
In late 2022, Edmonton’s unhoused population experienced a shigella outbreak. (Shigella causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms and spreads when basic sanitation is unavailable.) As more and more people became extremely ill, an urgent need for hygiene facilities became apparent. BSCS, with funding support from the City of Edmonton, set up temporary bathroom and shower facilities in the parking lot of the Mustard Seed Street Church at 107 Avenue and 96 Street to fight the outbreak.
Francesco Mosaico, a physician whose primary practice is in Edmonton’s inner city and the president of the Sherwood Park Stake of the Church, saw an opportunity for the Church to help. He was instrumental in arranging for a donation from the Church’s Humanitarian Aid Fund to facilitate the addition of temporary laundry facilities to the hygiene hub. Hiregood, a social venture connected with BSCS, partnered to operate and maintain the facilities.
The Hygiene Hub Becomes Permanent
After the Shigella outbreak subsided, an ongoing need for the services provided through the hygiene hub pilot program was evident. Nearly 1,000 people were using the services per month. The Church’s donation makes the laundry facilities permanent, while other partners’ contributions ensure the entire project continues operations.
Hiregood, an Indispensable Partner
Hiregood is an indispensable partner in the hygiene hub project. It employs staff who themselves are overcoming barriers to employment. They maintain the bathrooms and showers and provide laundry service, including washing, drying and folding.
“We love that people can come and shower [at the hub] and then be able to put on clean clothes,” said Hiregood CEO Jodi Phelan. “There is also a social aspect [met] for some alone on the streets. They get to come and socialize for a bit, and we can refer them to resources around the area. There is so much love exuding from this space.”
Hiregood staff are also trained to give life-saving treatment for drug overdoses and have saved lives in connection with the hygiene hub project.
“That’s the beauty when we partner with organizations,” said Chantelle McMullen, Church communication director in the Edmonton area. “They do it so much better than if we tried to do an initiative on our own. You just go to the people who are already doing it well, and you ask, ‘How can we help you in your work?’”
Church Members Pitch In
Elder Robert W. Mendenhall, Area Seventy for the North America Central Area, Edmonton and Winnipeg co-ordinating councils, said, “The Church is pleased to participate in this important initiative in providing laundry facilities to the residents of inner-city Edmonton. Particularly, we’re pleased that this year, we can support greater stability for the initiative by enabling the acquisition of permanent laundry facilities. Reflecting the Saviour’s charge to love our neighbours, we’re grateful for this blessing of providing help and assistance for those most in need.”
Edmonton-area Church members have found ways to help make a difference. Children in the Sherwood Park area are collecting gently used towels so patrons can dry off after showering. Other groups are collecting laundry soap, fabric softener and hygiene kits. Church youth in North Edmonton held a “Stack for Shigella” activity where they brought toilet paper and had fun creating massive toilet paper structures before donating the toilet paper to the hygiene hub.
McMullen explained, “When we look at the metrics of the impact of donations, we look at how many of God’s children’s lives can we bless with our support. It’s the 900 to 1,000 people every month who are having their laundry done, who have a clean place to go to the washroom, who have some dignity returned to them, who feel like they matter because of this, who are seen because the society around them cares enough to provide the most basic of human needs. And I think that’s what Jesus Christ would expect us to do.”