Hi! I'm Frank. Today I'm volunteering with my mom in San Francisco.
San Francisco is a wealthy city, but it has many homeless people.
Thousands of homeless people live on the streets.
They have limited access to bathrooms.
Imagine that you couldn't take showers or use clean bathrooms.
I'm sure you wouldn't like that.
But it's a common situation for homeless people.
Doniece Sandoval is changing that.
One day she heard a homeless woman crying.
"I'm so filthy."
The homeless woman sobbed.
"I have nowhere to take a shower."
This gave Doniece the idea for a shower bus.
What's a shower bus?
Follow me! I'll give you a tour.
Mr. Jones is the bus driver.
He drives the bus to different places around the city.
The shower bus used to be a normal city bus.
But now it has two private bathrooms.
Each bathroom has its own shower, sink, and toilet.
The bus also provides towels, soap, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.
And they're all free!
The shower bus changes lives.
Being clean is very important, and not just for health reasons.
Many homeless people can't get jobs if they aren't clean.
Without jobs, they can't find housing.
Being clean provides opportunities for many homeless people.
In fact, the shower bus even changed my life.
My mom and I used to be homeless.
We couldn't take showers or use clean bathrooms.
That was before we found the shower bus.
On the shower bus, we could do both!
It helped my mom find a job.
It also helped us find an apartment.
Then we weren't homeless anymore!
But we still come to the shower bus to volunteer.
That's it for our tour.
Mr. Jones has to drive the bus to another part of the city.
I'm glad you visited the shower bus with me.
Maybe you can find a way to help the homeless too!