Flowing With Blessings aids the unhoused with free showers, laundry services

In Atlanta, 2,000 people sleep on the streets at night, according to the Atlanta Mission . Georgia’s capital city is home to over a quarter of the state’s homeless population of nearly 10,000, according to the organization.

The unhoused population has grown by 33% since 2022, according to the Atlanta Mission. While new, innovative shelters opened to combat the issue, more resources are needed to help Atlanta’s portion of the state’s more than 10,000 unhoused people.

Homelessness can happen to you, me, or anyone just as easily at any given time, according to The Atlanta Mission website, which says the organization sees cases often happen due to a job ending, an uninsured home burns down, or a teen who gets kicked out of the house.

An Atlanta nonprofit called Flowing With Blessings , which was founded by Clarenton “Nicky” Crawford, is working to aid and give back to the city’s unhoused community.

Flowing With Blessings

Flowing With Blessings was born out of an agency of compassion to the unhoused founded by Crawford in February 2022.

The primary focus of the nonprofit is to offer exceptional care for their clients, restore dignity, personal hope, and health consciousness in metro Atlanta’s underserved community, says Crawford.

Since opening, Flowing With Blessings’ volunteers have offered free showers, clothing, food, and now recently added a laundry service, located in his converted big yellow bus designed by Georgia Tech students with multiple washers and dryers.

Crawford and his team get up every Tuesday and Thursday mornings around 4:30 a.m. to set up the showers and laundry bus outside Grady Memorial Hospital. Crawford said they have about 50-60 unhoused people each time come out to shower and get their clothes washed.

Their goal is to help as many unhoused Atlantans as they can because they know cleanliness can be beneficial for their health. With the newly added laundry bus, unhoused people can freely clean their clothes without any stipulations.

While Crawford did not intend to run a laundromat, he considers it an honor to help those using the service.

The inspiration of the company came from Crawford reading an article about a gentleman who had passed out soaps, shampoos, and other toiletries from hotels to unhoused individuals.

“About an hour after the gentleman passed the supplies out, one man came around and gave them back saying he appreciated it, but he had nowhere to shower, so that stuck with me,” Crawford said.

Crawford eventually reached out to the man to figure out how he could help and pave his own way of giving back.

“I thought, ‘Do I buy them food or give them money?’, I just wanted to do something to help others, and I thought finding ways to give the unhoused free showers was a good idea, but undoubtedly had fallen through because I never could get a connection,” he said.

Eventually, Crawford said he forgot about that venture while focusing on other business projects. A couple of years later, he said it was only God who one day in 2021 brought the idea back in his mind.

“I’ve been blessed, and I tell everybody, I’ve always tried to help other people because I came from a family where that’s just what we did,” he said. “My mother had an eighth-grade education with my dad having a sixth-grade education, but we all went to college, and my mom was the person that didn’t care who you were or where you came from, as long as you were a nice person.”

Crawford said if he can help someone as he passes along, then his living is not in vain and that’s something he’s always felt. He also said no one is better than him and we’re all human.

Importance of Giving Back

Crawford said giving back is “something you’re supposed to do”. One day, he asked a friend how they feel about their money, to which they replied with “Each year, what you accumulate over time, you give a portion of that back”, but giving doesn’t always mean monetary.

“He told me you could speak to somebody and greet them with a smile and that’s a gift,” he said. “I tell people when you pass these people on the street, don’t act like you don’t see them, acknowledge them as human beings even if you don’t have any monetary things to give. These are real people, and it could be you at any given time.”

Additionally, Crawford said he has had people ask him why he wants to help unhoused individuals if the assumption is they may be on drugs or have mental illnesses. Crawford said that maybe so with some but not all, and even then, it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be treated in a nice manner or not be allowed a shower and clean clothes.

“I tell everybody to go three days without a shower when they ask me why I chose to help,” he said. “Take three or four days, go out in the sun, cut the grass, and after that third or fourth day, take that shower and you call me back and tell me how you feel.”

Crawford said when his guests get out of that shower, some holler they feel like a new person.

Crawford also has his family heavily involved in Flowing With Blessings as well and says he didn’t have to ask or force; they all wanted to support and give back as well.

His daughter, Christina Moss said she fell into working alongside her father as they were breaking away from doing construction work. She also said she fell in love with the work and learning more about people’s stories.

“He [Crawford] was going to really enjoy his retirement more and I was going to focus on brokerage because I do real estate and other different things, but then I just came in one day and I’ve been coming back ever since,” she said. “It opened up a passion that I didn’t know I had.”

Moss said her dad started Flowing With Blessings didn’t come as a surprise.

“This is like number 10 as far as companies that I’ve been a part of with my dad and I tell people I’ve been working since I was like eight years old because my dad is a serial entrepreneur,” she said.

Starting the company, she said, made sense for her dad because he treats all her friends as if they were his own.

“He’s such a giver to everybody he knows, so this just allowed him to dive into who God was preparing him for all along,” she said.

Furthermore, Moss said the importance of giving back is “so important” and we’re all one paycheck away from possibly being unhoused.

“We’re all here to serve. It doesn’t matter your religious background, servitude is all of us and you must be the change that you wish to see, and you must be able to give back and open your heart up to people because their unfortunate circumstances could be your unfortunate circumstances,” she said.

Crawford said they want to make the space as safe and comfortable for people as possible.

“I don’t judge them, that’s not for me to do. Many people think all unhoused people must be on drugs and some of them might, but it’s so many different people out here and while they’re on the streets, our job is to try to make their life a little bit better,” he said.

Paving the Way Forward

Homelessness is a nation-wide issue where unhoused people need accessible resources and aid to get them off the streets. Recently, in a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court Ruled in its biggest decision on homelessness in decades, cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places.

Crawford said although he understands it, he doesn’t agree with the ruling.

“That Supreme Court is strictly about the Haves and Have Nots,” he said. “Y’all go figure it out, but we’re not giving any breaks on anything because in addition to this, that Project 2025 is something else, we’re in for a rude awakening in this country if that comes true.”

As far as goals, Crawford said he wants to eventually collaborate with Mayor Andre Dickens and other Atlanta officials on unhoused initiatives.

Additionally, Crawford said he wants to investigate refrigerated storage options for diabetic medications, coordinate with medical professionals to provide injections for diabetics, work with the city to engage unhoused individuals in cleaning public areas, provide uniforms/shirts to identify unhoused individuals participating in cleanups, and obtain funding to pay unhoused individuals for participation in cleanups.

Lastly, Crawford says he is “very pleased” with being able to do this service and give back to people who are in need.

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