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After launching a nonprofit that has provided hundreds of homeless people with warm showers over the past two years, the founder of Humanity Showers is expanding his mission and putting people to work while helping connect them with addiction services and housing.

“Dignity goes beyond a shower,” said Vista resident Jordan Verdin, 30, president of the nonprofit.

Verdin launched his first two-stall mobile shower in 2019 and since has expanded the program to include a second two-stall shower and a six-stall shower. While still one of the newest mobile shower programs in the county — others are run by Community Through Hope, Duwara Consciousness Foundation, the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego and Think Dignity — his nonprofit already has the largest fleet.

His also was the only program to remain active in the early days of the pandemic last year, which Verdin said was a time when they were most-needed.

“COVID really changed what we were doing,” he said about the increase in demand and the different types of people who began showing up. “Before, it would just be people you’d see on the street. It’s interesting to see the demographic shift in the people we are serving.”

That shift included people who work but live in their cars and who needed a place to wash up because the showers they had used at gyms and colleges were not available during the pandemic shutdown. Verdin said the number of people using Humanity Showers increased from 15 or 20 a day to 30 or 50 after March last year.

Verdin’s program had a modest start 2014 with just some tubs of water and soap that were provided to homeless people at Fallbrook Apostolic Church, where his father is the pastor. A professional photographer, Verdin raised money for his first mobile shower in part by selling his photos at local art shows. Volunteers and donors soon came forward to help expand the program, which now is in three Oceanside locations and provides about 150 showers a week.

Donations to his program can be made at the Humanity Showers website, https://www.humanityshowers.org,

On Wednesdays, he tows a six-stall shower to a church on Clementine Street in Oceanside, where his helpers include four homeless people he pays between $20 and $50 for a few hours, depending on the nonprofit’s budget at the time. Verdin said he was inspired to hire homeless people after reading about the program Wheels for Change, which pays clients staying in the Alpha Project’s homeless shelters to clean up neighborhood streets.

“There’s a false stereotype that homeless people don’t want to work,” Verdin said. “But it’s the opposite. No one’s giving them the opportunity to work.”

Among the homeless people he’s paying are KathleanAlphonse, 50, and Mark Knox, 39, who have been married about five years and homeless for the past two.

“It helps,” Alphonse said about the money she earns. “It helps mentally and emotionally.”

“We appreciate what Jordan is doing here,” Knox said. “It helps you get back.”

Alphonse said she sees people transform after using the showers.

“They go in, they’re depressed, they’re angry, they’re sad,” she said. “They go in and take a shower and come out clean and smiling. They feel great.”

Verdin’s nephew Isaiah Chavira, another volunteer with the program, described a similar scene.

“Some of these homeless people haven’t showered in months,” he said. “They come in all grumpy with low self esteem, and when they come out they’re a whole new person.”

Besides showers, the church parking lot on Wednesday also had racks of free clothes, a charging station for phones and a booth with hygiene items including toothbrushes, toothpaste and shampoo.

Angel Ortiz and Israel Flores, barbers from Filoso Barber Company in Vista, gave haircuts at another booth.

“It’s to make people smile,” Flores said. “A haircut goes a long way.”

“I’m always asking God, ‘What am I giving back?’” Ortiz said about his motivation. “I decided every Wednesday, I would be here for two or three hours.”

Chef Sunny Soto also volunteers on Wednesdays at the shower site, and most recently was there to serve scrambled eggs, sausage, potatoes and French toast made with bread donated by Camp Coffee in Oceanside. Soto made the food in the kitchen of Pacific Coast Spirits in Oceanside, where she works. The restaurant creates a specialty cocktail to benefit a local charity each month, and she said a spicy margarita on the menu raised $2,000 for Humanity Showers in February.

On Tuesdays, the showers are at Brother Benno’s soup kitchen in Oceanside, and on Thursdays they are at the Bread of Life Rescue Mission. Verdin said he hopes to work with the San Diego Rescue Mission, which recently merged with Bread of Life, to help find housing for people who use Humanity Showers.

The McAlister Institute often has a booth at the shower sites to provide information about addiction recovery. Verdin said Vista-based Exodus Recovery, which has helped connect two people who use the showers with housing, is just a phone call away.

“We’ll run into people at the shower and they’ll say, ‘I’m ready to get off the street,’ but the reality is, if you don’t get to them right then, you’re not going to find them later,” he said about the importance of making immediate connections with people.

Oscarin Ortega, founder and CEO of the youth mentoring program Lived Experiences, said he plans to add to Humanity Showers by creating a mobile laundry so people can have their clothes washed while showering.

Verdin said his motivation to help local homeless people began after working as a photographer with various nonprofits in Kenya, Tanzania, Guatemala and Nepal. Hoping to change the public’s perception of impoverished people, he has interviewed and photographed hundreds of people and posted his work on his Instagram page.

“I always ask people what their dream is, or was, and what makes them happy and what is the most difficult thing to being homeless,” he said about his interviews. “And I ask them what is their biggest need, and the number one need is for a shower.”

Verdin said he plans to begin providing showers in Vista and San Diego soon, and he hopes to expand his program to all of North County. He is raising money for a second six-stall shower and plans to set up one of his two-stall showers at Tijuana over six months.

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