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\nFiona Faulkes hopes to turn her mobile shower service into a care centre<\/p>\n
Every Monday and Friday morning from 10am, artist Fiona Faulkes can be found setting up a mobile shower unit at Friars Walk bus park in Ennis.<\/p>\n
According to homeless charity Mid West Simon, there are about 14 street homeless people in Ennis at any one time, although that figure can fluctuate.<\/p>\n
Having spent five years living in London while homeless, Ms Faulkes realised there was no facility for street homeless people in Ennis to have a shower.<\/p>\n
She started a mobile shower service in August of 2025, and in recent weeks she launched the service for the current year.<\/p>\n
The shower operates from a specially designed tent and the water is heated by a gas cylinder. About seven people regularly use the facility.<\/p>\n
“It’s not ideal but I have a water source, I have privacy barriers and it’s a start. This is very much a service in its infancy and it can only get better,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I was homeless for years in London, I know what it’s like not to be able to get clean. Trust me, it’s miserable. Try washing your feet in a public toilet, it’s not much fun.”<\/p>\n
\nFiona Faulkes hopes to turn her mobile shower service into a care centre<\/p>\n
Ms Faulkes said her homelessness followed a “series of relationship breakdowns and a lot of bad choices”.<\/p>\n
“When you’re breaking from homelessness, you’re leaving these friends and they don’t want you to go. It’s difficult to get away but it is doable,” she said.<\/p>\n
“After I moved to Ennis and my children had grown up, I wanted to give back and the first thing I was told was that there was nowhere to get cleaned up.”<\/p>\n
Ms Faulkes said a mobile shower for homeless people was first put in place in San Francisco and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Currently only men use the shower but she has plans to make it available to women.<\/p>\n
“I have to admit a few times I wanted to give up because it was really, really hard going,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It will be super discreet and women only volunteers. I want to turn it into more of a care centre. I’ve had volunteers who are hairdressers and a nurse.<\/p>\n
“It’s a meeting place as well. Not everyone on the street has a phone. A lot of it is word of mouth and it’s about helping people to feel relevant.<\/p>\n
“What I say to the lads is, I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this with you.”<\/p>\n
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\nThe service mostly relies on word of mouth<\/p>\n
As Ms Faulkes was speaking, one her volunteer colleagues was helping to get the shower up and running for the morning.<\/p>\n
He said it was his way of giving back as he was the first person to use the shower in 2025 when he was homeless himself.<\/p>\n
“I was homeless for about a year and a half. This did help while I had nowhere,” he said, adding that he is hopeful the service can be expanded.<\/p>\n
“It gives you a bit of self-respect. People look at you differently. When you’re sitting around the street all day, people’s eyes are constantly on you.<\/p>\n
“You’d feel better going in and out of shops, where people would be thinking: ‘This fella is going to rob something’.”<\/p>\n
Niall Garvey, the Chief Executive of Mid West Simon, said there are a number of people in Ennis who are street homeless.<\/p>\n
“It’s estimated that there are about 14 people rough sleeping in Ennis. The weather can have an effect on it as well,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Any service to help people that don’t have a home is beneficial of course.<\/p>\n
“In Limerick, people can call into a drop in centre but in Ennis there is no service like that available.”<\/p>\n
Listen: Mobile shower unit for homeless people in Ennis, Co Clare, changing people’s lives<\/p>\n
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