By Hugo Rodrigues
Ottawa’s homeless and poor now have an inexpensive place in Centretown to do their laundry.
The Centretown Laundry Co-operative opened its doors at the Bronson Centre recently for a trial run in preparation for an expected grand opening on Nov. 24.
“The centre is going pretty good now that the schedule is picking up,” says co-ordinator Steven Rose, himself once a homeless person.
The co-operative provides its members with two washers and two dryers at very low cost compared with commercial laundromats.
The need for affordable laundry emerged during the People’s Hearings, a series of community meetings held in 1997 with the city’s working poor and homeless.
“Most people who are in private low-cost housing don’t have laundry rooms in their buildings,” says Somerset Regional Coun. Diane Holmes. “Unless you can afford to clean your clothes, you’re behind.”
“It makes some of the things that we take for granted more affordable,” says Centre 507 director Clara Freire. “And making this a co-op will lend people a sense of ownership.”
Rose hopes the co-op will eventually become a member-run facility, with users staffing the co-op and assisting with maintenance of machinery.
Life-time memberships can be bought by anyone for $1; for another $1, members can use both washers and dryers.
The co-op is a joint project of the health centre, First United Church, McLoed- Stewarton United Church, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and the United Way.
Sanitation is a top priority at the co-op. For example, members whose laundry contains lice would be provided with new bags for their clean clothes and machines are sterilized after each wash.
Both Rose and Holmes say that affordable laundry will increase the overall health of those living below the poverty line.
One of the biggest problems for the co-op was to find space for the two machines.
Bronson Centre director Maureen Maloughney had initially been hesitant to make a commitment to providing the co-op with space. Until the coordinators could prove their ability to raise not only their start-up costs but also future operating costs.