A retired Atlanta resident is helping the city’s unhoused by providing free showers, and now laundry services, to those without shelter.
With his big yellow school bus tugging along a tiny trailer, Clarenton “Nicky” Crawford provides unhoused people with laundry facilities and mobile showers to clean themselves and their belongings. Inside the bus are rows of washing and dryer machines, making him a laundromat on wheels for this vulnerable population.
Accompanied by a slew of volunteers, Crawford travels to Grady Memorial Hospital twice a week to supply these vital services, through his Flowing with Blessings nonprofit, which he co-founded in February 2022. With the newly-added laundry bus, unhoused people can freely clean their clothes without any stipulations. While Crawford did not intend to run a laundromat, he considers it an honor to help those using the service.
“When they come here, I consider them my guests,” Crawford told Channel 2. “There’s no coins and no credit cards. Just put it in, punch start and let it go.”The city also continues to tackle a growing homelessness crisis. The unhoused population has grown by 33% since 2022, according to the Atlanta Mission. While new, innovative shelters opened to combat the issue, more resources are needed to help Atlanta’s portion of the state’s more than 10,000 unhoused people.
However, Crawford intends to make up the difference in his small, yet crucial way. The Alabama State University alumnus added, “I don’t know them. I learn their names over time because they come back. But it doesn’t matter. They’re still human.”
While benefiting from the service herself, Myron Jackson calls its a divine intervention.
“That’s what I’m talking about. It’s God’s work. Got to be God.”
Further information on how to get involved with Flowing with Blessings can be found
on its website.RELATED CONTENT: The City Of Atlanta Officially Opens New Homeless Housing Project