Last week, I visited a few more laundrettes around Brighton & Hove...
Many are self-service and very quiet at the moment, so I’ve also been calling and emailing both laundrettes themselves and other local organisations to try and connect with laundrette customers…
I’ve made contact with Brighton & Hove charity Off The Fence’s Antifreeze project, who have been providing a service for the last three years called ‘Hygiene For All’.
“Due to limited access to places for cleaning, the homeless suffer the indignity of travelling in public in an unclean state.
In 2018/2019 Hygiene For All was launched to address this problem and reduce exclusion in the community. The project is still in its early stages of development & adapting to meeting the needs of the homeless.
The Hygiene For All project consists of a Laundry Van, Shower Van and Hygiene Van, offering the homeless an opportunity to look and feel better, live healthier lives and prevent exclusion from the community.
This project works alongside the Off The Fence Day Centre and Evening Outreach. This not only ensures rough sleepers survive a freezing night on the streets but have access to basic needs and ongoing support into accommodation and employment to become an active member of the community.”
The vans usually park up in different locations throughout the week, for people experiencing homelessness to use.
Unfortunately, due to Covid, the service is not running at the moment and the staff are very busy supporting the service users in any way they can whilst adhering to current restrictions. I’m hoping I can find another way to speak to people who have used the service as I think it’s such an important and inspiring project to include when talking about local laundrettes. It’s hard to imagine just how much a shower and clean clothes could brighten up the day of somebody experiencing homelessness. The fundraising manager shared this video with me:
I’ve also been in touch with some local migrant and refugee organisations. From the laundrettes I’ve visited and spoken to, there seems to be a high percentage of migrant workers and (as a second-generation migrant myself) I find this interesting. I’m also aware that entering public spaces like laundrettes can be daunting for people who are new to a city - let alone a whole country - or, on the contrary, it could be somewhere that becomes a sanctuary, somewhere to connect with the local community…
So, this week - I have a few chats with laundrette workers lined up and also hope to speak to laundrette customers via some of the organisations I made contact with last week.
Continuing to plant the seeds of the project and looking forward to seeing which ones begin to grow...
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