A group of men sits huddled near a giant hot-air vent on Lower Michigan Avenue, dry, quiet, and almost protected from the icy wind blowing sheets of snow on the crowded streets above. Slowly, a red Chevrolet Beretta winds through the maze of Dumpsters and loading docks. It pulls into a parking spot near 200 N. Lower Michigan, and one of the men shouts out “Hey, here comes the Beretta. That’s one of my regular customers.”
“Well, you always do a good job, so go ahead and wax it,” the short, barrel-chested man answers, handing Ferrel a ten. As he does, the rest of the men grab their buckets, rags, and waxes. A week and a half ago many of these men were hauled off to shelters by the Department of Human Services and the police. Most of their belongings were thrown away. But now the “Lower Michigan Avenue Homeless Car Wash” is up and running again.
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He looks down at his wet rag and smiles to himself. “Actually, I was incarcerated, but let me tell you something. This is giving us a chance to show ourselves. It keeps me from begging and gives me some pride, which, at this point in my life, is something I really need.”
“I was one of the first ones to start doing this, and have been going at it for almost two years, so I’ve picked up a lot of tricks,” he says. “First I wipe off the salt with this,” he says, opening a jug of windshield washer fluid. “Then I wash it and dry it off with the rags that I got drying in front of the heating ducts. And I know how to stretch wax. I can do two cars with the wax that most people throw away.”
