A free laundry program that serves about 30 Newport County individuals and families each month will continue after the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center agreed to absorb its costs, following a loss of federal funding that had put the program on course to close.
Laundry Love Newport had been run by Strategic Prevention Partnerships through its No Wrong Door behavioral health program. On Sept. 30, the nonprofit’s executive director, Rebecca Elwell, announced an immediate shift in programming and staffing because of the lost federal money. The laundry program was scheduled to end unless another organization took it on.
“With the loss of funding, we knew discontinuing Laundry Love would be a huge loss for the 30 individuals and families who benefit from the program each month,” Elwell said.
Heather Hole Strout, the MLK Community Center’s executive director, reached out to ask how the center could help. The center decided to take on the program costs and fold Laundry Love into its community programs.
“Strategic Prevention Partnerships and No Wrong Door created a critically important resource in bringing Laundry Love to our community. We knew the program needed to be saved,” Strout said.
She said the program fits alongside the center’s Rinse & Renew program for people without access to showers.
“Laundry Love is not just for people who are unhoused,” Strout said. “Many people who access this service are families with young children who know the importance of their kids having clean clothes for school. Lack of laundry access can be a barrier to school attendance.”
How it works
The program continues at Mid-Island Laundromat, 232 West Main Road, Middletown, and transitions to the MLK Community Center on Thursday, Nov. 12, with a new, earlier start time of 3 to 6 p.m.
Participants receive quarters, detergent, softener, dryer sheets and other laundry essentials. No registration is required. Machines are available first come, first served starting at 3 p.m., and the last loads must be in by 5:15 p.m.
Because of Thanksgiving and Christmas, the second sessions in November and December move to Mondays: Monday, Nov. 23, and Monday, Dec. 21. The December Thursday session is Dec. 10. Beginning in 2027, the program settles into the second and fourth Thursday of each month.
Questions can go to Lisa Kerr, the center’s director of community programs, at lkerr@mlkccenter.org or 401-846-4828, ext. 104.
Laundry Love began in 2003 in Ventura, California, after an unhoused man was asked what support he needed and said that if he had clean clothes, “people would treat me like a human being.” It now operates nationally.
The MLK Community Center, founded in 1922 and renamed for King in 1968, says it helped more than 9,000 people last year, the most in its history.
