Grammy-winning Artist Lecrae and Non-Profit Install Sinks for Homeless Amid Pandemic

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Grammy-award winning hip-hop artist Lecrae Moore and non-profit Love Beyond Walls have teamed up to install outdoor sinks in downtown Atlanta to help homeless people have a place to wash their hands amidst the CCP virus pandemic.

With a team of volunteers, they installed 15 foot-pedal-powered sinks with supplies of 5 to 10 gallons (19 to 38 liters) of water and soap in Hurt Park on March 19, 2020, according to media reports.

The aptly named #LoveSinksIn project has received lots of attention and is expanding around Atlanta and to other cities across the United States due to the severity of the spreading epidemic caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

On April 2, the non-profit announced on their Facebook page that they added another city, Columbus, Ohio, into their task force.

“A shelter for women and children in Columbus, OH will be equipped with resources to go out and serve people experiencing homelessness,” they wrote.

Speaking to WSB, Lecrae said that after the outbreak he was worried about the homeless community. Lecrae then connected with his old friend, Terence Lester, the founder of Love Beyond Walls, and they decided to work together to help the underprivileged people.

The response from homeless people in downtown Atlanta, some of whom were able to wash their hands for the first time in days, was very positive, reported the outlet.

“[I]n a major city, like [Atlanta], it speaks very loud,“ Lecrae said. ”The love is loud, appreciation is loud, but the problems are loud as well.

“The city has shown me so much love, so I wanted to be sure to show it back,” he added.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on any given night in Atlanta, there are more than 3,000 people without a place to sleep.

As an experienced homelessness advocate, Lester told WBUR that the idea of putting up portable sinks came from Love Beyond Walls’s previous venture, where they used the sinks in RVs that the organization utilized as temporary homeless housing units.

“There’s public health research right now that suggests that if we’re asking the community to wash your hands, protect against the spread and contraction of the coronavirus,” Lester said, “then we also need to provide tools for the parts of the community to perform those behaviors if they are experiencing homelessness.”

Contrary to the idea that homeless people might not be aware of the extent of the pandemic, Lecrae told GMA that “[p]eople experiencing homelessness are just as concerned, if not more, about the issues at hand.”

This is especially true as almost all the places they would normally go to use the restroom and wash their hands are closed. The artist said it was rewarding “to ease some of their panics” by providing this basic hygienic service.

Love Beyond Walls expressed their gratitude on their Facebook page to everyone who reached out to them to know how to get involved with the wash stations.

“We have been been [sic] receiving hundreds of messages from all over the world,” they wrote, “and apologize if we have not gotten back to you.”

For those who expressed to donate, the non-profit noted that they can reach out to them at www.lovebeyondwalls.org/give.

“I think this moment is showing us that we need to be about the entire community, the whole community, even those who are houseless,” Lester told WBUR.

“For me, in the ways of Jesus … I just want to show that compassion to my neighbor,” Lester said.