Haircuts for the homeless in a refurbished bus. Here’s what else local nonprofit plans

If you drove by the Fern Hill Library on Tuesday afternoon, you might have seen a beige-and-blue bus emblazoned with the words, “MOBILE COMMAND UNIT.”

The Skoolie Foundation, a Puyallup-based nonprofit, has partnered with Tacoma Public Library to provide free haircuts to the area’s unhoused residents and low-income families. “Skoolies” are buses that have been transformed into living or recreational spaces.

Barbers will volunteer their time at the bus-turned-hair salon stationed in library parking lots.

Brandon Simmons, the foundation’s board chair, told The News Tribune that the effort will help people of all ages who “can’t just go to a barber.”

“We want to make sure that kids have this resource as well,” Simmons said, “because their hair — their face — this is the personality of a child, and we’ll make sure that their personality shines when they’re out in the community and around their friends.”

The outreach event, called Haircuts for Hope, kicked off on a day when temperatures soared upwards of 95 degrees. Because of Tuesday’s record-breaking heat, Simmons said, no barbers showed.

Regardless, Simmons sounded optimistic during a call on Wednesday. He estimates that eight to 10 people came in the hopes of getting a haircut, and the foundation helped 15 to 18 people access resources, including water and shade beneath pop-up canopies. Local business owners volunteered time to give back to the community, he added.

The partnership will see the hair-care bus appear at the following locations and dates from noon to 4 p.m.:

• Fern Hill Library, 765 S. 84th St., on second Tuesdays: July 9 and Aug. 13

• Moore Library, 215 S. 56th St., on third Wednesdays: July 17 and Aug. 21

• South Tacoma Library, 3411 S. 56th St., on fourth Thursdays: July 25 and Aug. 22

The Skoolie Foundation is also working on a collaboration with the Salvation Army.

Douglas Jarvie, director of social services at the Tacoma Salvation Army, told The News Tribune on Wednesday that a plan is in the works, with details to come later: “We’re very excited about it.”

Skoolie Foundation plans for future buses

Simmons, who has experienced homelessness, can relate to many of the people he hopes his foundation can help. Growing up in Spokane, Simmons said, he and his family collected water from a nearby creek before boiling it to take showers.

The Skoolie Foundation is working to roll out another vehicle. The bus called “Empowerment” would provide showers to unhoused people.

“That’s one of those things we want to build: to give that same dignity to individuals in our community,” Simmons said in a late-March interview.

Nearly 2,150 people experiencing homelessness were recorded in Pierce County in January 2023, marking an increase over previous years, The News Tribune previously reported.

Other mobile-hygiene efforts have found success elsewhere in the U.S., including in cities like Bellingham and Phoenix.

Scott Schubert, CEO of the Metropolitan Development Council, said he likes that the mobile-hygiene bus could go to people in need instead of the other way around.

“That’s a great approach, I believe, and [I’m] really looking forward to seeing their progress in the near future,” Schubert told The News Tribune in April. “But it definitely is needed in this community, especially for people in the community that don’t have access to hygiene stations.”

Simmons said it will cost around $80,000 to build the Empowerment bus. Asked how far along they’d come in fundraising for the vehicle, he estimated the foundation had about $15,000 as of July 1.

The total cost of the Mobile Command Unit was roughly $18,000, Simmons said.

Hygiene isn’t the Skoolie Foundation’s only area of concern: The nonprofit is working on a mobile-shelter program and other initiatives. The proposed home-on-wheels would be available for low-income individuals or families, domestic-violence survivors and veterans, according to the nonprofit’s website.

Walter Washington, senior director of Transformational Programs at Tacoma Rescue Mission, noted during an April interview that a shelter bus wouldn’t require land development since it can pull into preexisting parking lots. In fact, 15 or 20 such “skoolies” could park there at once.

Washington thinks that Simmons “has some of the recipe” for success: “The recipe is: You have a product. Is the demand for it going to be there? I think yes. Does it solve a problem? … Yeah, I think so.

“It’s providing a very, very pivotal transitional-housing option that scales well.”

Skoolie Foundation board member Joe Bowers told the newspaper in March that he hopes the nonprofit’s efforts will help hard-up neighbors feel better about themselves. Maybe they’ll use the showers ahead of a job interview to get refreshed and mentally prepared.

“I just want to see a smile on someone’s face,” Bowers said. “[For them to] feel like a human being again.”