Images: Puddle Jumpers
Yesterday, South Australia’s only mobile shower truck left the state after five years of providing rough sleepers and other people in need with free, no-questions-asked showers.
The truck was leased from Melbourne by Puddle Jumpers, a South Australian charity providing practical support and food relief to vulnerable children, young people and families across the state.
It was a key part of the charity’s services, travelling to locations across Adelaide where people may not otherwise have access to public shower facilities.
However, Puddle Jumpers revealed in a Facebook post on Thursday that it was no longer financially viable to keep the truck operating in South Australia.
“A very sad day for Puddle Jumpers… and for South Australia,” they said.
“Next Tuesday, South Australia’s only fully mobile shower truck will leave the state.”
The announcement prompted an overwhelming response from the community, with nearly 800 comments from people offering donations and other forms of support.
A fundraiser for a new truck has raised more than $20,000, although the cost of purchasing and fitting out the vehicle could reach $80,000.
Puddle Jumpers CEO and Founder Melanie Tate told Glam Adelaide that that amount could be reduced if there was enough in-kind support.
“We’re hopefully going to take this whole different spin and build our own shower truck,” she said.
“I think that’s even more exciting because then we won’t have that $25,000 annual fee attached to it, as well as having something that’s purpose built by the community.
“But now we’re taking this turn. We may require significantly less if we get enough in-kind support.”
One South Australian business that has offered their services free of charge is Alluring Kitchens, who offered to complete the entire kitchen and cabinetry fit-out free of charge.
She said that having a South Australian truck for South Australians “sends out the message that the community wants to make sure that you have access to showers and toiletries.”
While many people associate the service with rough sleepers, Melanie said that people that used the service came from a much broader cross-section of the community.
“There absolutely are homeless people and people who are fleeing domestic violence or sleeping rough, and even couch surfers that accessed the service,” she said.
“But it’s not just for people who are sleeping rough. It’s people that don’t have access to showers for a variety of reasons,” Melanie said.
The truck often operated alongside food relief and laundry services, creating one-stop community hubs where people could access multiple forms of support without travelling between locations.
On Friday nights, it would join Puddle Jumpers’ Western Food Hub alongside Orange Sky Laundry.
“We have hot meals and we have fruit, food and produce — things that they can take with them,” Melanie says.
“It’s that community space of safety, but you can access lots of things at the same time.”
The truck’s mobility also means it could reach communities where public shower facilities simply don’t exist.
For Melanie, the value of the truck goes beyond providing somewhere to wash.
“As human beings, asking for help is so hard.
“Being able to just access it and not have to explain why you ended up in that situation is a big step for giving someone confidence to ask for more help.”
“A lady had asked me to mind her things while she went into the shower truck, and I was standing on the side of the road holding her walking frame with all her worldly possessions hanging off it,” Melanie recalls.
“This woman could have been my mum or my grandma.”
When the woman emerged, everything had changed.
“She came out, she was whistling and singing, and she just said, ‘Oh, I feel like a new woman.’
“She was really happy about things, and it kind of changed my outlook for what that service does mean to people.
“It stuck with me as how valuable that service is to vulnerable people.”
If you would like to donate and help Puddle Jumpers save the mobile shower truck, click here. You can keep up to date with their campaign on Instagram and Facebook.
