Clarenton “Nicky” Crawford has devoted his golden years to serving unhoused people in Atlanta — but he’s quick to deflect any praise or recognition for his work.
“It’s an incredible feeling to just know that, wow, their lives are being touched and changed by something that we did,” said the retired Stone Mountain resident. “Our reward is to see them progress.”
Crawford is the founder of Flowing With Blessings, a nonprofit that provides showers, laundry services, restrooms, occasional haircuts and meals for Atlanta’s growing unhoused population, a community that is disproportionately made up of Black citizens.
You can find Crawford and his team parked near the emergency room of Grady Hospital with their mini fleet of service vehicles: a small school bus that has been converted into a laundromat on wheels, and a trailer with three separate washroom and lavatory facilities. They accommodate up to 50 people on a first-come, first-served basis every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., helping people remain dignified while tending to their hygiene and health. (The volunteers will often attempt to squeeze in additional latecomers from an overflow list, too.)
It’s a noble mission by Crawford, who says observing his family’s open-door policy when he was growing up in Dothan, Alabama, helped shape his humanitarian spirit.
“It was never a big deal to be around people that society had pushed to the side,” he said. “Nobody is better than us [and] we’re no better than anybody else.”
Credit: Deborah Crawford
Credit: Deborah Crawford
After decades of finding success in the construction business, Crawford learned a few years ago of an unhoused man who respectfully returned some toiletries he had received because he had nowhere to use them. A seed of an idea had formed in Crawford’s mind, but he tabled it, uncertain of how to solve the societal issue.
When career circumstances changed in 2021, Crawford refocused on pursuing his plan. The following year, on Feb. 2, he purchased a three-stall trailer with his own money — but no place to post up. That changed within a week. A friend who works at Grady helped arrange a monthlong trial outside of the hospital.
“I knew God had led me to buy that,” Crawford said, referring to the trailer. “And all of that other stuff would fall into place.”
Four people showed up to shower on the first day. That number doubled by the following week and continued to grow as word about Flowing With Blessings spread and Grady allowed them to set up there indefinitely.
“I was thinking, if we get to 30 [showers each day], that’s going to be really big,” Crawford said, adding that his team fully cleans each trailer stall after every use. “At one point, we were doing about 60.”
Flowing With Blessings unveiled the mobile laundromat, dubbed the Wash Bus, in June after realizing dirty clothes pose hygienic challenges for many unhoused people. Crawford, who calls himself a “dreamer,” recruited the ingenuity of Georgia Tech industrial design students to realize his vision.
“I didn’t foresee all of this, but it just continued to evolve,” says Crawford, who plans to continue expanding the resources his organization provides. For now, he says his team also assists unhoused people with administrative processes like paying bills or connecting with other resources to help improve their situations.
“We try to help them with whatever they might need outside of the shower,” he says.
Crawford’s good deeds have paid dividends in ways he didn’t anticipate. He’s inspired by the fact that Flowing With Blessings has grown to about 10 volunteers — many of whom are young adults — and is primarily run by Crawford’s daughter, Christina Moss. He speaks warmly of regulars who have gotten back on their feet through his team’s support or motivation and still stop by to say hello. He recalls watching one older gentleman get emotional.
“They are my validation that what I heard God tell me to do was right,” says Crawford. “They don’t have to tell me ‘Thank you.’ I can tell them ‘Thank you.’”
HOW TO HELP
For more information on Flowing with Blessings, visit the website at flowingwithblessings.org or Facebook page at facebook.com/FlowingWithBlessings.
To donate, click here.
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