Update: In Detroit, seamstresses help homeless survive brutal winter
DETROIT – On a bitterly cold February night, church volunteers drove through downtown Detroit in a truck piled high with heavy-duty coats, looking for homeless people. This winter, the city has suffered through the lowest temperatures since 1950, and these handmade coats, which double as sleeping bags, can keep someone without shelter from freezing to death.
The coats are the brainchild of Veronika Scott. America Tonight first sat down with the 24-year-old designer in August when she told us how the idea grew out of a college project. When she went to homeless shelters to get feedback on her design, she realized a key piece was missing.
“A coat on its own is not going to change anything,” she said. “But if I go in and hire the people that are in the shelters that would be possibly on the receiving end of the things instead of just giving them a coat and hiring them.”
At age 21, Scott founded the Empowerment Plan. Her employees are all single mothers, and all got the job when they were homeless themselves. One of the newest hires in August was Teia Sams, 21, who had been living in a shelter, separated from her two children. She was desperate to reunite with them, but needed a job. Last summer, Sams had no sewing experience and the bone-chilling extremes of a Michigan winter still seemed very far away.
Six months later, Sams is transformed. Now, she’s one of the strongest sewers on the team.
“I see plenty of coats and it’s like really exciting. I want to stop the person and like say, ‘Can I see the coat?’ so I can see the details that I did in it,” Sams said. “I think that’s like real exciting and it warms my heart to see the people who needed the coat, or needed a home, walk around in the coats that I made.”
In its first year, the Empowerment Plan produced 25 coats, Scott said. The following year it stitched together nearly 1,000. And over the past year, its output totaled more than 3,000.
“Seeing the people in the conditions that they’re in because of this weather and because of not being able to take care of themselves, this is a huge part of what we’re doing,” Scott said.
Caroline Gunn is one of the new seamstresses. She said the coat was the only thing keeping her warm when she was homeless and living in a shelter without heat.
“I came from nothing, but I had my coat,” Gunn said. “That coat is everything to me. It really is.”
The coats are water-resistant and close with Velcro straps since buttons tend to fall off and zippers can jam. Big companies like General Motors and clothing giant Carhartt donate much of the material. Scott is planning to expand the warehouse and hire more seamstresses to keep up with growing demand.
“It’s exciting and thrilling, but also kind of daunting at the same time,” she said.
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