Albuquerque's brilliant plan to help the homeless using old city buses

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New Mexico state Rep. Stephanie Maez (D-Albuquerque) would like to use old city buses to create a “mobile shower” to help the homeless in her city.

The plan would use city funds to create a yearlong shower program that would “provide a mobile facility … to offer showers and bathroom facilities to allow homeless individuals to tend to their personal hygiene.”

The plan comes on the heels of other creative plans in other states, including a Wisconsin plan to build micro-homes for those who had no place to live and an Indianapolis “Homeless Bill of Rights.”

Unfortunately, not every city in every state has had such luck dealing with the homelessness problem. Manteca, California, saw its city council criminalize sleeping outside, while Fort Lauderdale, Florida, saw a 90-year-old man arrested for handing out food. In New York City, the Strand Book Store doused people sleeping outside its doors with frigid water.

Dale Williams, executive director of Midnight Run, a New York-based charity, said that Albuquerque’s shower model could be useful in other cities outside New Mexico.

“There are a few places in the city that offer shower possibilities, but not as many as there could be. Something like that is missed opportunity in New York,” he said.

Below is a video that shows how San Francisco non-profit Lava Mae, is already delivering dignity one shower at a time to the homeless.