An Interview with Reginald Milton, Executive Director of the South Memphis Alliance – And a Laundry Operator
Reginald Milton is executive director and founder of the South Memphis Alliance, which is a nonprofit organization established in 2000. The SMA’s mission is to improve the health, knowledge and stability of young people and families through social services, advocacy and mentoring.
When the laundromat adjacent to the organization’s headquarters became available, Milton, a Memphis native, took advantage of the opportunity to serve a community need while also generating funding for the SMA.
Milton worked with L&M Laundry Services in Memphis to replace the store’s old equipment and create the Social Suds Resource Center. What’s more, in those areas not occupied by laundry equipment, community and professional organizations provide customers with free social services, such as literacy training, job search support, eye exams and HIV testing.
Please give me some background into the South Memphis Alliance.
The organization was designed as a community development corporation. It’s a nonprofit focused mainly on working with poor inner city youth, finding ways to help them while addressing the issues within their community.
We started off teaching about HIV education, anger management, conflict resolution, goal setting and those kinds of things. As time went on, we expanded our services to those youth who were either in foster care or getting ready to leave foster care. Today, we’re one of the largest agencies in the area providing services to youth who are aging out of foster care.
We work with them in foster care until they are 18. At that time, they leave foster care, but we will continue to work with them and provide them with social services, help them get jobs and whatever they need – all the way up to age 25. It’s an effort to assist those who are outside of the system, to help them navigate to a better life.
How does running a self-service laundry fit into the SMA’s mission?
Our office, which is located in an urban area of South Memphis, was next door to a dilapidated laundromat. This store was the epitome of any negative view you might have about a laundromat. The lights were burned out. More than half of the machines were broken. There were people just hanging around the building. It was an eyesore.
We believe a community is much like a human being. It can be strong, it can be weak, and it can be sick. And you often can tell how healthy a community is by how well the businesses in the area are doing.
As it turned out, we were looking for a social entrepreneurial project. We wanted a program that would pay for itself, and that would reach those individuals who had fallen between the cracks – the homeless, the young and the very poor.
The poor don’t have leisure time because they’re busy struggling to survive. So, the effort was to find a program that wouldn’t waste any more of their time and, in fact, utilize any wasted or down time.
After considering a number of business models, we realized that many of the people we were serving actually utilized that laundromat next door. Although the facility was run-down, I could see the value in taking ownership and making it into a place where community members could do more than just laundry.
After all, laundry customers spend 30 minutes washing and 30 minutes drying, so they have at least an hour of down time. We also liked the fact that it was a service where you don’t have to have something to utilize it. One of the other businesses we considered was a car wash, but of course you need to own a car to utilize that service. With a laundromat, it’s the opposite; many customers come in because they actually lack something – a washer and a dryer.
Therefore, in 2009, when the laundromat became available, we purchased it. We also contacted the foundation in our city, and we contacted our city government and applied for funding.
It’s important note that we operated the laundromat for about three years before we secured the funding for the renovation. It gave us a great opportunity to get involved in running the business so that we knew exactly what we wanted it to be.
This is not a laundromat. It’s a resource center with a laundromat in it. The distinction is critical. There are many laundromats that offer additional services, but at the end of the day, they’re still laundromats.
We didn’t want Social Suds to be a place where people would feel they could utilize our services only if they were washing their clothes here. We want individuals to be free to visit to our center no matter what – but, if they want to wash their clothes, they can.
Throughout the design process, our distributor – L&M Laundry Services – was giving us great advice for building a laundry, but we resisted much of it. They were so helpful and really wanted this business to succeed, and they kept saying, “This is not how you build a laundromat. This doesn’t look like a laundromat.”
But that was the point. It’s not supposed to look like a laundry, because it’s a resource center.
Please describe the laundry operation at Social Suds.
The laundry is 3,500 square feet and is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. It’s also fully attended. We have one full-time employee. However, we also partner with the city’s welfare assistance work program, so we receive some volunteers through that program who help out at the laundry. Of course, staff members at the SMA also give of their time to maintain the laundromat.
In 2012, we renovated the laundry. Some of the core funding of the project was through a community development block grant recovery fund. “Recovery” is the key word – meaning we had to “recover” the building, not demolish and rebuild. As a result, we actually encapsulated the old building with the new building, creating one-foot-thick walls around the laundromat. Due to this, the energy efficiency is amazing.
Also, in urban communities like ours, there are very few businesses of this caliber. Most people don’t spend as much money as we did to build a laundromat.
But it was important that we used quality woods and stainless steel throughout the building. Our tables are solid stainless steel. We have wrought iron benches. We spent a great deal to make the laundry look and feel elegant, because we were trying to create an experience.
People are amazing creatures. We adapt to our environment. If you expect little from people, they will give you little. If you expect more, they will give you more. In urban settings, people are often exposed to the very least – we were determined to give them the very most.
What types of social services and programs do you offer in conjunction with the laundry business?
We partner with more than a dozen different agencies that come here to provide social services for community residents while they’re here waiting for their clothes to wash and dry. Again, it’s about that down time. We don’t require them to get up, get dressed and take up additional valuable time to receive these services. We provide those services at times they might otherwise be wasted time.
For example, we work with the Southern College of Optometry. Their students will come here and provide free eye exams for the children.
We work with a legal service, which is extremely helpful. Often, the poor don’t understand their legal rights and may get taken advantage of. Legal representatives will explain concepts such as renters’ and homeowners’ rights, as well as how to avoid being taken advantage of legally.
We also have a credit union that comes here. Many of our laundry customers don’t have checking accounts, so they wind up going to a liquor store or some other business where they pay high fees to cash their checks. We help these individuals open up free checking accounts.
We have physicians come in to conduct free blood pressure screenings, as high blood pressure is a huge problem in many poor urban areas.
In addition, we give away 15,000 condoms every year and are the largest provider of the female condom in our area. We also provide women with assistance and contacts for agencies that provide women’s health care.
I’m sure there are some great stories that have come from Social Suds and its connection to the local community. Can you share any of those?
Absolutely! There was a homeless individual who would come in regularly, and no one would make direct contact with him. He looked very scruffy and a bit frightening. He would come in, do his laundry and not interact with anyone. Then, one day, he came to us and explained that he was having some medical issues. The doctor here examined him and diagnosed him as diabetic, as well as discovering several other serious illnesses.
During this process, we found out that this man was a decorated Vietnam veteran who had honorably served his country and received a Purple Heart. He was an outstanding man who just had run against a lot of problems in life. Today, this man has a job and is back on his feet.
I believe what makes this center so great was that it allowed us to connect with someone like him – I don’t think it would have been possible without the freedom that a laundromat setting and a place like this provides.
Another great story: we have a mother of five who utilizes the laundromat regularly. She brings her kids here and they do their homework at the store. It’s a safe, welcoming environment. This saves her the time and money of having to hire someone to look after her children while she’s doing her laundry.
What would you most like readers to take away from this interview?
Ideas are easy. There are thousands of ideas out there, but often they sit on shelves and collect dust. Those groups that actually help fund those ideas often don’t get credit for what they do. This project never would have gotten off the ground if it wasn’t for the Assisi Foundation of Memphis. We had no funding. All we had was a concept. They stepped forward and were one of our first sponsors.
Beyond that, it’s important to realize that there are creative ways to solve problems. Above all, our responsibility is to serve our people – whether that’s through opening a laundromat or something else. When you try to make a difference, you are making a difference.
[Editor’s Note: Those interested in helping out the South Memphis Alliance can do so through the organization’s website: smaweb.org.]
Equipment Mix
Social Suds Resource Center
Memphis, Tenn.
• 6 Huebsch toploaders, $2.50
• 6 Huebsch 30-pound frontloaders, $4.00
• 6 Huebsch 40-pound frontloaders, $5.00
• 6 Huebsch 50-pound frontloaders, $6.00
• 2 Huebsch 60-pound frontloaders, $7.00
• 10 Huebsch 30-pound stack dryers, $1.00 for 20 minutes
• 2 Huebsch 45-pound stack dryers, $1.50 for 20 minutes
• 2 Huebsch 75-pound dryers, $2.00 for 20 minutes
• American water heating system (75 gallons), with a Noritz backup system
• 2 American Changer bill changers
• 10 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
• Custom-built, stainless steel folding tables
• Epoxy flooring
• LED lighting
• 1 beverage vending machine, $1.35 per bottle
• 1 snack vending machine, prices range from $1.00 to $1.25
• 2 60-inch televisions
• A 10- by 10-foot children’s area, with a television, books and tables
• A clinic room, where doctors provide free exams
• A meeting room, where local agencies provide free services
Store Hours: 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily
Staff: 1 full-time employee, 2 part-time attendants
Total Square Footage: 3,500 square feet
Parking Availability: 15 parking spaces
Distributor: L&M Laundry Services, Memphis, Tenn., (901) 546-8151
