Fifth Annual Homeless Foot Washing a Great Success--Daily Sound Article

by Nick C. Tonkin (a great staff writer for the Daily Sound of Santa Barbara, CA)

Inside the Veteran’s Memorial Building on Cabrillo Boulevard the sound of conversation, laughing, and music is interspersed with the sloshing of water as volunteers take part in a 2,000-year-old tradition at the Annual Homeless Foot Washing.

The event is in its fifth year. People without homes(“clients”) can come in, get food, a foot wash(manicures optional), receive new shoes and sock, a lunch, and can visit any one of the support organizations set up outside.

It started when counselor Wayne Mellinger heard about similar foot washings in other places. Mellinger, who had himself been homeless once, said the homeless often get stigmatized by society, labeled as drunks or criminals beyond redemption.

And by the same token, the homeless often become suspicious of people outside their community, seeing them as callous and entitled. Mellinger said that makes it difficult for homeless to get the help they need.

But he saw the intimacy of a foot washing as a chance to erase those perceptions and put a human face on both sides.

“Through something as simple as a foot wash we can get rid of that ‘us versus them’ thinking,” Mellinger said.

He took his idea to Willbridge of Santa Barbara’s co-founder Lynelle Williams. After doing some research of her own, Williams agreed to start the event. It has since grown into Willbridge’s largest outreach event.

“This is an opportunity to reach those who really don’t connect to services or have been estranged from services that they’ve had,” Williams said.

Chris Larsen knows the value of a good pair of shoes. He owned his own construction and handyman business with three employees and three trucks. But within a year, alcoholism claimed his business, his home, and a lot of his clothing.

Larsen said it’s difficult to find employment if you can’t be presentable. Without even a decent pair of shoes it’s hard to secure a job and regain the stability you need to get off the streets.

“I see a lot of people walking around half-barefoot,” Larsen said. “I’m nowhere near that position, but it’s just a matter of a day that I could be.”

He’s now in finishing dual diagnosis program and in transitional living, “doing a lot of walking.”

While he’s doing well for someone in his position, ready to finish the program and planning to go back to school to get a degree in construction technology, he said he’s still on the edge and believes events like these are important.

“Programs like these give people a real boost,” Larsen said. “You might bump into a service that you’ve been looking for and didn’t know how to get to.”

For the volunteers it’s a chance to do help people and gives themselves an appreciation for what they have. Alan Strout has been volunteering at the event since the beginning. Washing feet this year has been humbling and has given him an appreciation of what homeless people in this country have to go through.

“It gives you new respect for people and their stories,” Strout said.

After getting a wash, shoes, and pack lunch, clients head outside with where housing, health, and counseling organizations have tables set up.

Roslyn Scheuerman is a case worker for New Beginnings, which provides counseling and the Safe RV program that finds places for people to park their vehicles overnight. She said events like these help break down the stigma against homeless and makes people realize that they come from all walks of life.

“We’re not talking about the guy with his rolled sleeping bag on the beach necessarily,” Scheuerman said.

Scheuerman said it’s also good for people those who need help to find it. People often don’t know the kinds of services that are available until they come to an event like this. And even if New Beginnings isn’t able to provide them what they need, Scheuerman said she knows which way to point them.

“Here today we can also help steer them in the right direction, even if we can’t help everybody,” Scheuerman said.