It's 5:30 p.m. and the last rays of sunlight are giving way to the approaching nightfall. As many across the Little Rock metro area drive home after a day of work, Kris Nelson and Nate Stripling prepare to dedicate their evening to people with no home to go to.
The brother-sister team volunteers with The Van, which is part of a fleet of vehicles that belongs to The One Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission "to locate and love our unsheltered homeless neighbors, wherever they may be."
Nelson and Stripling have been working with The Van for about six months and both fervently believe in the nonprofit's motto: "No Rules. No Apologies. Just Help."
"We're just trying to build relationships with people and let them know they are cared about," Nelson said. "The disconnection that people have with those who live on the streets is what really bothers me. It's not 'us' and 'them.' It's just us."
Stripling added that the people who receive aid from The Van are not the only ones benefiting from the program. As a volunteer, he said, he gains from the friendships he builds through small, everyday-type connections.
"We don't say, 'We feed the homeless,' because it's not like we're going to the park and feeding the ducks. We're just spending time with people and helping them any way we can.
"You don't have to be part of a big organization to help someone. Just go do it. Walk out your door and hand someone a coat or a cheeseburger if they need it. It's that simple," he said.
Stripling said he thinks homeless people have been stigmatized, and he wants to break misconceptions he thinks many residents have about why people wind up living on the streets.
"Most people don't realize how close they are to being in the same spot. For a lot of these people, all it took was one step that snowballed," he said.
Aaron Reddin founded The One Inc. after working in the shelter system in Little Rock and seeing many people in need struggling to reach available resources.
"I started emailing my friends and asking for donations. I would cram my Toyota Yaris full and go out and try to meet the needs of the people I had met that didn't have shelter. I quickly found out that a Toyota Yaris was highly inadequate to accomplish this," Reddin said.
In February 2011, an anonymous donor gave the organization a passenger van -- aka "The Van." Since then, the fleet has grown to four vans that serve different areas across the state.
• The Van, the original vehicle that started it all, serves Little Rock and central Arkansas;
• The Mission Machine serves Searcy and White County;
• The Russ Bus is based in Russellville and serves a large part of the River Valley area;
• The River Giver serves Batesville.
Reddin said that because of a general lack of resources in rural areas, many homeless people come to Little Rock seeking assistance. Having the vans closer to those places could help stop uprooted people from losing everyone they know.
"It's been awesome to watch the other teams be able to help people in their own areas," Reddin said.
The most recent addition to The One's mobile efforts is a shower trailer. The trailer has heat, air conditioning and three showers, one of which is designed for wheelchairs. According to an announcement on the nonprofit's Facebook page, the purchase was made possible by more than $2,000 in anonymous individual donations through the website and "a very timely" $5,000 donation from Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
According to the Facebook page, the shower-mobile is not quite ready for action. "It has a lot of parts to learn and we have to de-winterize it, but we should have a trial run with it very soon. After that we'll be finding acceptable locations to set up and offer showers to our unsheltered homeless neighbors. The trailer will also be very helpful this winter when we open up our emergency shelters. We're pretty pumped!"
De-winterizing will involve pumping antifreeze out of the pipes.
Reddin said that showers and laundry facilities are greatly needed by people living on the street.
"There are few places you can go to get a shower around town, but there simply aren't enough facilities for all those in need. You can't get ahead if you can't bathe and keep your clothes clean," he said. "I would love to be able to offer a mobile laundry service in the future."
A PLACE FOR WOMEN
While the majority of The One's aid is provided through the vans via physical deliveries of everything from food and clothing to firewood and medical supplies directly to those in need, the nonprofit also offers housing for unsheltered women, with or without children, at a house that opened in Little Rock last year.
The place has been known simply as "the Womans House," but its new name -- Kathryn's House -- was announced Thursday during a meeting of the nonprofit's board at Dizzy's Gypsy Bistro restaurant. The public had been invited to attend to remember Kathryn Pawlak, a homeless woman befriended by Van volunteers who was shot and killed in Little Rock on Nov. 25, 2014.
"We had known for a long time that it was next to impossible to get a female a bed at a shelter immediately. It's even more difficult for women with children to find immediate shelter if they are not involved in domestic abuse," Reddin said. "We wanted somewhere that could provide immediate shelter to women temporarily until they could transition either into another shelter facility or into their own home."
An additional bathroom is being added to the house. When finished, it will be a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house. Reddin said the house had already helped several women and their families during their transition to better living situations.
The One also is in the process of buying a property in Russellville that has a two-bedroom house along with some detached apartments that could be converted into shelters. Donors can contribute to that effort through the nonprofit's website.
FOOD
In an effort to provide fresh food for those in need, The One partnered with The People Tree Inc. to establish The Field, an urban farm behind The One's warehouse in North Little Rock.
Reddin said the long-term goal for The Field is to give homeless people a chance to work and a means to develop skills that could help them develop their own small farms.
With winter approaching, the need for donations is rising, he said. Reddin said that during dangerously cold weather, the group hopes to operate emergency shelters as it did last winter, and they will need cots and blankets.
Donations can be dropped off at:
• The One Inc. warehouse, 8016 Faulkner Lake Road, North Little Rock.
• Brian Thompson Shelter Insurance, 9903 Brockington Road, Suite 103, Sherwood.
• Lexington Park Apartments, 7601 Vestal Blvd., North Little Rock.
• Sweet Love Bakery, 8210 Cantrell Road, Little Rock.
Men's large coats, men's jeans and men's boots and shoes are particularly needed right now. Nelson added that socks and underwear are always in short supply, along with tarps and sleeping bags. A complete list of requested and high-demand items is online at theoneinc.org.
"Right now, we're focusing on scouting out where new people are staying so hopefully we can help them before it gets too cold," Nelson said.
For more information on the services The One provides or to volunteer, visit theoneinc.org or The Van's Facebook page (on.fb.me/1O2XnYB) or call (501) 955-3444.
Volunteers also ask the public to contact the organization if they know of someone in need.
ActiveStyle on 11/23/2015