A coach bus retrofitted with sleeping pods this week rolled into Woonsocket, R.I. The city bought the ‘Dignity Bus’ from a Florida nonprofit for $150,000 to help house people who are homeless. Health Reporter Lynn Arditi takes us inside.
This story was produced for the ear. Please click the button above to listen. The transcript has been edited for print.
All white and shiny, as if it’s been gift-wrapped, the converted coach emblazoned with the words “Dignity Bus RI” pulled into its new home in the Holy Family Church parking lot.
Woonsocket City Council Vice President Valerie Gonzalez rushed over to greet it.
“How was that ride?”
“It’s brutal.”
“But you’re here!”
“But we’re here. We did it. These guys did it. They’re amazing.”
That’s Tony Zorbaugh, executive director of The Source, a Christian-based nonprofit in Florida that built the bus. Zorbaugh and his three-man crew drove two days from Vero Beach to deliver it.
“You want to see it?”
“Yeah,’’ Gonzalez said “Let’s go in!
Zorbaugh climbed inside, where a gaggle of news reporters was snapping photos. He pointed to a large glass screen behind the driver’s seat.
“This is a working Electric Fireplace right here that turns on,’’ he said, “that blows heat.”
It’s the kind of special touch that happens when the people building the bus have had their own bouts of homelessness.
“So [the builders] wanted to add some ambiance,’’ he said, “and actually give some additional heat for people that are waiting to get on.”
It’s mid-July, though, so the A/C was blasting. Zorbaugh pointed to another screen.
“And then you have televisions here as well that will turn on,’’ he said, “then you have security cameras.’’
The security cameras, he said, are designed for safety and limited to the main cabin. There are no cameras in the sleeping pods. Gonzales said the video feed will be connected to the police department.
When clients get on the buses in Florida, Zorbaugh said, they are directed to go to the back. That’s where they’ve kept a few of the original coach seats and added storage cubbies.
“So here’s the cubbies so when people come back, they sit down here,’’ he said, “they take their shoes off, stick their shoes on the rack, and then they go get in their bunks.”
The bus has 20 bunk beds and curtains for privacy.
Kyle McNeill, a maintenance assistant for The Source, helped build Rhode Island’s Dignity Bus. He also slept on one like it in Florida for five or six months in 2021 when he was homeless.
“When people are ready to get on the bus, they’re ready to go to sleep,’’ McNeill said. “So there ain’t no playing around. No loud music [or] people talking. And it’s impressive how people, you know, take this as a blessing.”
But McNeill said the Dignity Bus is actually more than just a place to sleep.
“We get new clients in and they’re all, ‘I don’t have no family in Florida,’ and I tell them: you do now.’’
Zorbaugh and his group “look at homeless people differently than what I’ve seen in other areas,’’ said Gonzalez, the city council vice president who led the effort to bring the Dignity Bus to Woonsocket. “They actually see the homeless as part of the solution.’’
Rhode Island’s nonprofit Community Care Alliance will staff Woonsocket’s Dignity Bus and connect clients with other services, like food and counseling. The bus is expected to begin housing residents in the fall.
Health Reporter Lynn Arditi can be reached at larditi@thepublicsradio.org. Follow her on Twitter @LynnArditi.
