This just in, from Primavera’s Sarah Murphy:

We are really low on water again and all the homeless people still need it! Could you do the blog again and put a blurb in the paper? The address is 702 South Sixth and the phone number is 623-5111. Ask for Jenny or Richard.

This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2007.

16 replies on “Primavera Low on Bottled Water”

  2. Bottled water? Why bottled? Why not provide drinking fountains or something? Most public parks have drinking fountains.

    What else can people do to help the homeless?

  3. Ya why cant they drink tap water? Lots of people drink tap water, Id like to know why it has to be bottled water when tap water will do just fine. Can someone answer that?

  4. Hold on – explanation for the need for water in a bottle as I understand it (expect Foot In Mouth)

    Primavera helps the houseless find work and give them sack lunches and to-go food.
    Tap water isn’t immediately available as something you can take along as a lunch, and sanitary issues also mean they can’t reuse containers, IIRC.

    So bottled water or bottled juice is the only real way to give liquids as part as a prepared lunch. It’s not like the houseless can go buy it easily.

  5. I guess it’s kind of unseemly to quibble over the details of giving homeless people water while I sit here on my ass using my expensive computer and having a belly full of green-chile tamale (with killer hot sauce, mmm mmm good).

    I am just one of those people who is concerned about the proliferation of bottled water. Those bottles end up in landfills. I am not too keen on bottles of Gatorade either, but most people drink those in smaller amounts. Water is a staple. It’s self-cleaning compared to Gatorade or whatever, so you can put it in a refillable container.

    So I say, give the homeless people nice canteens or whatever the affordably priced REI knock-offs are, that they can easily carry around and re-use. And then come on here and tell us how you’re helping homeless people AND using an environmentally friendly way to do it.

    Then tell us an easy way we can pay some money to help pay for it.

    In any case, hats off to people who do so much to help the homeless, and sorry for being a sit-on-ass blog-posting person who gives a hard time over little details. It’s just what I do.

  6. True. It would be nice to give them all hardy Nalgene bottles (I ♥ my Nalgene). But I’m not sure if that option is available. If it is, that would be awesome.

  7. It’s been years since I heard anyone talk of the right to use a drinking fountain or seek water from a private business to drink.

    Guess it was alwaysa myth.

    FACT is we have deliberately removed drinking fountains to discourage people from living here if that’s an issue for them.

    Nothing gives greater comfort then giving do gooders in excuse to pile something heavy in there ‘truck’ and haul it across town. Prima Vera isa warehouse for those like the owners of this publication to gladdly pay for to conceal the hardest working from public view. It is wrong to suggest that such a machine shelter gives a dam about the people they ‘house.’ They charge us less then prisons do and giving them free supplies is like donating money to the republican party on a public school teachers salary.

    It’s called postage. It costs pennies. Write a check. Mail it to some entity that is on the side of the born silver spoonless and you’ll fear perhaps the goons bang but in gunning widely not realize it is you protected as well and not notice anything but less wear and no hypocritical tear. But alas you might learn more about the problem with the time not just money saved. I say you MUST handle the truth. It shall tame all given a chance.

  8. Why not IPH?

    Bottled water can be up to 3000% more expensive than tap water, not too mention the environmental impacts of the bottles.

    Primavera might be able to save money in the long run by working with a company like Nalgene to get reusable bottles at discount. I am sure the manufacturers would recieve some tax write-offs.

    On another more sarcastic note, I think a switch to tap water would also help by introducing flouride into the homeless populations dental care routine (no flouride in bottles water). This would decrease cavity rates and save even more money down the line!

  9. Michael the homeless population is responsible for almost there weight or beyond annually in disposable styrofoam plates taken to the landfill.

    At any of the nightly dinners the averages amount of plates used for one trip to get a deliberately inadequate portion to increase the plate count for funding purposes is several PER FED PERSON. Multiply that further by one assumes attendance at on average certainly more then one such feeding per day.

    Yet your environmental concerns are missplaced because there are so few who are homeless or being so fed.

    Ask instead why the shelter doesn’t have a good water filter that steriles and bags it by the gallon in bladders that cost a penny or so and no more despite a nice handle and reclosable opening to drink from.

    THey count on a check from those who haul them bottles. Because they are highly paid in offices including now elected. The coffee smells better then ignorance which smells far worse then any rotting corpse in my book. Don’t drink and think without facts. People don’t believe the truly nieve comments on here are sincere. If you come to be educated then invest much more time in that then in spreading reflex distraction. You think a man can carry enough water to work outside all day long and bring back the empty without reducing the number of passengers per bus signifcantly for example. You think not about how collapsing gallons would allow if widely available refills for a quarter all over town and can of course carry les then that as well.

  10. First off, I drink tap. I don’t “get” bottled water as a cache’ item.

    However, here’s what I’m saying: There are health restrictions on things that regulate the conditions of how people are given food/drink.

    Let me tell you about the story of my friend Jedi. He happens to be houseless. So Jedi and his buddy came into some cash, and being helpful they bought a bunch of hot dogs and buns and set up on one of those park grilles.

    They were giving away free food to help their fellow man. Instead they got hassled by The Man for giving out food without proper food safety clearances(!) The po-po dumped all the food, and cited them.

    I don’t know the facts but here’s my understanding:
    A group can’t give out loaner bottles and refill them with tap water. (Don’t think about giving them away without maintaining ownership of the bottle — immediate pawn shop item.) So bottled water is likely the only “safe” potable water option that government regs would let Primavera distribute.

  13. Hi All,

    I am so glad you are interested in the plight of the homeless. Call me anytime at 882-9668; I would love to have any of you come for a tour of our programs. These people are just like us…or people you know. They have very little, much less than most of us can imagine.

    1. Folks on the street often lose or get their stuff stolen all the time (pretty much because they are sleeping on the street and when they close their eyes, other people steal). So, even if they have bottles– they can’t keep them for very long.

    2. Nalgene bottles sound great. Again, they get their stuff all the time.

    3. Drinking fountains are available at all our programs and are at some parks and other public places. However, the homeless are often “on the move” and walking and really need accessible water. They are in the heat and walking a lot.

    4. Our shelter residents do have tap water available to them, but the other homeless and our work programs provide bottled water.

    5. We do provide empty bottles when donated.

    6. Some folks use bicycle bottles and Nalgene bottles.

    I hope that answers all your questions! I understand the sustainability issues brought up here. It’s a tough battle taking care of people who have lost everything. We want to be environmentally sound…it’s a little problematic in this situation.

  14. It is not subject to controversy that preventing good people from feedning those who need food is motivated by wishing to deny food to these very same people.

    Give men food and the will refuse to build bombs and virally soon too mnay plows will we suffer having to share.

    My comments are very clear. In shelters as in lingerie marketing there is Alice Rae and there is Walmart.

    The ‘SAM’ shelter does not seek compensation for or establishment of real onsite medical care. It plants itself in the Ghetto, stacks people like cordwood, hires those without character, and eliminates the small halfway houses etc. that could really make a difference.

    It is the arena to further exploitation and any talk if still occuring about day labor not being a ticket to a longer stay is a joke of course and always was despite there entering into that crime themselves long ago.

    It works with the volunteer center, and now appears in these comments, to further the way things are. It is the problem. Filling bags with potable water should be automatic and it trivial not fraught with anything but encouraging truancy in it’s chattle not chained by the foot in fact.

    The bottles must be small. The slaves must not sustain themselves an entire day or more without licking there masters or mistress feet.

  15. Karl:

    I cannot adequately reply to your comments because I am limited and do not understand your worldview, but here’s my interpretation of what we do at Primavera and my feelings (not necessarily the philosophy or interpretation of the organization as a whole):

    Primavera is not just a place giving things to people perpetuating this mass welfare system. Primavera has a lot of programs to get people out of their needy situation. It has workforce development, training, life skill workshops, financial management education, foreclosure prevention classes, and transitional housing. There is no easy solution and many people will not overcome their difficulties, but we provide solutions when they are ready. But, these people have to be motivated and ready! There has to be a desire to change, as it is in all life situations.

    Still…I am not sure I follow your entire argument. We have many small sites for people to stay…we have scattered site housing as well, smaller transitional housing sites,too— check out our website! I think you are drawing conclusions from an outdated model.

    Is that helpful at all? I am a little disturbed by the “licking their masters or mistress feet” comment— we are trying to give them something they can carry, as many carry their entire lives on their backs!

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