Woman Opens Mobile Laundromat For People Experiencing Homelessness

Many of us try to live our lives by the fact that there is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving. This includes Ebonie Trice, who certainly understands how important it is to help people that have a need.

She was raised in Indiana and her family values were such from a young age that she realized she needed to do something important with her life. As a result, she moved to Austin, Texas, and opened a nonprofit organization.

Ebonie knew that she wanted to do something in the community to help others, so she reached out to local churches and asked how they could be of assistance to the local homeless population.

According to KXAN, she said: “I started personally thinking about how often I can wash [clothes]. I have a washer and dryer in my home, and it’s easy if I wanted to wash every day or every other day. But something as simple as that, we take for granted.”

That is when she started the Mission Accomplished nonprofit in 2014. She worked along with other volunteers to collect dirty clothes from homeless camps and wash them at local laundrymats. They would then be returned to the owners.

This is something that was needed in the community and people realized it. Suddenly, they were doing more than simply washing clothes, they would distribute kits of cleaning supplies and work along with others who had washers and dryers in their own homes.

Mission Accomplished has expanded over the years, offering food to families that needed, 24-hour bus passes, clothing, gift cards, water, and toiletry items.

Things did get complicated when the pandemic struck, but they continue to keep their nose to the grindstone. Ebonie said: “You’re trying to keep your volunteers safe but you also want to still help, and so it became a real big challenge.”

According to KXAN, she mentioned that laundromats started to frown upon them using their facilities, as they didn’t want a lot of homeless inside. That is when they had to really take a closer look at the organization.

Eventually, they teamed up with James and Laura Ritchie and their Lighter Loads ATX. That is when the Laundry Angels on Wheels was formed.

They use mobile trailers to bring washers and dryers to the shelters so that the homeless have access to them. In that way, they are getting more than food and shelter, they have laundry services.

She said: “It’s kind of like their one-stop shop, because the goal is to bring the services to them.”

A grand opening was held on October 16, 2021. She was able to interact with other people, which was something she was always interested in doing.

She said: “It’s such a different impact right now because we get to, like, talk to them. It’s just like, the realness of it, and then you get to see them all the time.”