by Jennifer Porter Gore
The line forms early in the morning, but it moves relatively quickly when you consider the clientele are taking a full shower and getting dressed for the day — in a Paterson, New Jersey, parking lot.
It’s a big deal, however, because the people lined up are part of Paterson’s unhoused community. And they can’t take personal hygiene for granted: like other large cities, most establishments in Paterson won’t even allow them to use the bathroom.
The portable showers, along with food, clothing and toiletries, are provided by the Muture Sisters, a nonprofit organization serving poor and underserved people in the city. It was founded 15 years ago by a Paterson grandmother whose journey helping the unhoused began with volunteering for the local youth football team.
“I may not save everyone that comes through that gate but one thing they know they will be treated with the utmost respect and dignity,” says Sharonda Roberts, founder and CEO of Muture Sisters, Inc. “And they’re going to leave feeling better than they did when they walked in.”
It’s an important mission: Poor hygiene among unhoused people “has been associated with a variety of communicable and non-communicable disease outcomes, many of which are life-threatening,” according to Simply the Basics, a nonprofit that helps social service agencies distribute soap, shampoo and other hygiene products to organizations that help the poor.
Without a place to regularly bathe or even wash their hands, people without homes are susceptible to skin rashes, parasites like lice or scabies or developing an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, according to a fact sheet on Simply the Basics website. Hygiene problems can also aggravate chronic diseases like HIV-AIDS and diabetes, and trigger depression as well as substance abuse.
And while Black people make up around 13% of the U.S. population, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates they make up roughly 37% of the unhoused — and more than half of all homeless families with children.
Muture Sisters — the name, Roberts says, is a French version of the word she and a close friend and cofounder used to describe themselves — is part of a small but growing number of nonprofit organizations that are helping unhoused people attend to their personal hygiene. Nonprofits in cities like Chicago, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Baltimore and Wichita, Kansas operate free public showers and hand out hygiene kits.
In Paterson, Muture Sisters’ shower campaign serves roughly 45 people in Paterson each week from July through September. In July, the organization offers showers every day for one week and serves around 300 people. The campaign takes a two-week summer break, then starts up again in August serving clients on Saturdays only.
Sharing love and reinforcing dignity has been Roberts’ goal since 2003, when she found her way into the human services field.
“I started volunteering with the Paterson Mustangs Football League because I wanted to keep my kids off the streets and get them into activities,” she recalls. “At that time, I didn’t have a job, so one of the coaches who also directed a local program offered me the opportunity to work part time.”
That invitation was all Roberts needed. She had already been providing ad hoc meal delivery to neighbors in need. Now, she was all in.
“Once I started working part time, I just seized the moment and asked if I could be trained in every department that a woman could work in. And that started my journey.”
Over time, Roberts expanded the number of services Muture Sisters provides by partnering with other organizations and operating in a parking lot owned by the American Elks Lodge 333, Temple 258 — which turned out to be a crucial move.
Earlier this year, Paterson officials proposed an ordinance that would have prevented anyone from distributing food, clothes, tents, and other “resources” in public. Failure to comply could have cost violators up to $2,000 or 90 days in jail.
Muture Sisters managed not to run afoul of the authorities by operating in a private parking lot. The City Council ended up pulling the ordinance from consideration—for now. But Robert, like others who serve the homeless, can’t provide what her clients need most—stable housing.
In May 2021 a fire destroyed Roberts’ apartment. She escaped with only the clothes on her back. and got a few days’ worth of hotel lodging courtesy of the Red Cross.
With help from friends, allies in the nonprofit community, a fundraiser and a little luck, Roberts got back on her feet and found permanent housing. The lesson wasn’t lost on her: “our unhoused population doesn’t have that opportunity to do that.”
Even then Muture Sisters never stopped serving its community and Roberts even used most of her COVID stimulus check to keep the doors open.
The next goal for Muture Sisters is to find “a space where it will allow me to offer showers daily,” says Roberts. “We are going to shower them and shower them with love until they’re able to love on themselves.”