Ericka Guridi finds hope and dignity through support from Tyler Street Community Service Outreach.
Ericka Guridi finds hope and dignity through support from Tyler Street Community Service Outreach.
Ericka Guridi finds hope and dignity through support from Tyler Street Community Service Outreach.
DALLAS — The misconceptions surrounding homelessness can blur the truth.
“Not everybody on the streets is on drugs. Not everybody is in the streets because we want to,” Ericka Guridi said.
Gurdi was a victim of a robbery and assault, which led to her being homeless. It also led her to Tyler Street Community Service Outreach in Oak Cliff.
“God has his perfect plans and his perfect time,” Guridi said.
Every two weeks, the organization hosts a food drive for those in need. What really hit home for Guridi was Tyler Street Community Service Outreach’s partnership with Streetside Showers. It’s a local organization providing mobile showers to unhoused individuals.
“It feels like heaven. It feels like heaven. You don’t know how much I missed it,” Guridi told WFAA. “It really makes me cry because it’s, it’s a blessing for me.”
“Our mission is to bring hope and help restore human dignity in the form of a hot shower and personal hygiene,” Streetside Showers Founder Lance Olinski said.
He started the organization in 2017. Each week, Streetside Showers goes to nine different locations throughout DFW. Over the years, they’ve provided more than 50,000 showers to people facing homelessness.
“Every community is struggling right now, and people are falling on hard times a lot quicker than we can actually keep up with,” Olinski said. “It’s not a luxury item. It’s just a basic human need.”
They meet that need with privacy and respect.
“Homelessness is a very complicated issue, but yet it’s not a personality trait,” Olinski said.
“People judge you because the way you look. For a female, it is very important to be clean all the time,” Guridi said. “It’s more important than having my paycheck every two weeks. It’s like everything for me.”
The initiative looks past judgment by restoring dignity.
“Life is worth it,” Guridi said. “I could tell you I feel sorry for myself, but I’m happy because I’ve got everything I need…Now, I have faith in God that he’s got better plans for me.”
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