Across the United States, homelessness reached a record high in 2024, with more than 770,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While long-term solutions to homelessness remain complex, frontline organizations are stepping in to meet urgent, everyday needs. In Charlotte, North Carolina, one such organization, Hope Vibes, is restoring dignity through something often taken for granted: a hot shower and clean clothes.
Hope Vibes, a nonprofit serving people experiencing homelessness, operates mobile hygiene units known as Hope Tanks. With support from Lowe’s community revitalization grant program, the organization recently unveiled a second fully equipped unit, doubling its ability to meet urgent needs across the city. The new mobile facility includes two full restrooms, complete with showers and toilets, and a laundry center with multiple washers and dryers, all powered by onboard utilities that allow service in any location.
“You can literally see life being restored to a person,” said Emmanuel Threatt, Hope Vibes cofounder. Dignity being restored to that person when they take a shower.”
The expansion underscores Lowe’s ongoing commitment to helping strengthen the infrastructure of local nonprofits through targeted investments in community-serving spaces. Since launching its five-year, $100 million revitalization initiative, Lowe’s has funded hundreds of projects designed to deliver lasting local impact.
Hope Vibes exemplifies that mission in action. Born from a vision, not an engineering blueprint, the organization’s founders launched their first mobile hygiene unit without technical backgrounds. What they had instead was a clear goal: to serve others with compassion and consistency.
“We just started dreaming big and sharing with others what our vision was, and people got behind it,” said Adrienne Threatt, cofounder of Hope Vibes. “It’s because of the support, like a Lowe’s, that we’re able to produce not one Hope Tank, but now two.”
The impact is already measurable. Hope Vibes provides an average of 30 to 50 showers and over 70 loads of laundry each month. But the deeper value is the human connection, says Lowe’s associate Kelly Jones, who nominated Hope Vibes for the grant. “Most of us, we’re not thinking, ‘Where am I going to have a shower today?’ or ‘Where can I go to get a shower?’ And this is letting the homeless community or others know that there is somewhere that they can go, or that’s going to come to them, to let them take a shower, wash some clothes, and have some humanity wrapped around it.”
Though the work is often emotionally challenging, the team remains clear-eyed about its purpose.
“It’s hard,” Adrienne said. “But it’s worth it for the people that we serve.”
As the new unit hits the road, Hope Vibes is expanding access to hygiene services and strengthening the community's social fabric, one shower and one load of laundry at a time.
