ST. CROIX — St. Croix has received a mobile homeless shelter known as a Dignity Bus, adding 18 beds to the island’s limited shelter capacity as officials and advocates continue to grapple with a chronic shortage of emergency housing across the territory.
The converted motor coach, developed by Florida-based homeless outreach ministry The Source, is designed to provide safe, climate-controlled overnight shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness.
The arrival of the Dignity Bus marks a new approach to emergency housing on St. Croix, where shelter capacity has long been limited. The Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections will operate the bus in partnership with the Transforming Lives Foundation, with a focus on providing shelter to people reentering the community after incarceration in addition to the general homeless population.
“I am really, really excited and happy for this moment for the people of the Virgin Islands,” BOC Director Wynnie Testamark said. “Finally, we have at least another tool in our tool belt that could assist the homeless — the individuals transitioning from the facility and the unhoused population that we have so much of here in the territory.”
Testamark said the bus will provide emergency overnight shelter on a first-come, first-serve basis, accommodating up to 18 individuals each night in sleeping pods positioned like bunkbeds. The bus is equipped with a shower, bathroom, washer and dryer, refrigerator, TV, monitored surveillance cameras, a lockable door, a flip-out grill to provide hot meals, a flip-up table for dining, and space for basic services.
“Everybody deserves somewhere decent to lay their head — not just under a tree, not on the sidewalk,” Testamark said. “With this Dignity Bus, the Virgin Islands project, they’ll be able to live comfortably for a night or two.”
The bus will be stationed nightly in locations across Frederiksted and Christiansted where homelessness is most visible, Testamark said. Outreach and public awareness will help ensure people know where the bus is located each evening.
Suzanne Darrow-Magras, director of the University of the Virgin Islands’ Center for Excellence in Leadership & Learning and secretary/treasurer of the Virgin Islands Continuum of Care Council on Homelessness, said UVI-CELL has worked closely with the Bureau of Corrections for years to provide in-facility and reentry education.
“Despite our best efforts with providing education services to our students, the biggest struggle that we found was with housing, especially when it comes to reentry,” Darrow-Magras said. “If someone was homeless before they were incarcerated, they had a nearly 100% chance of continuing to be homeless upon release.”
Darrow-Magras said some formerly incarcerated individuals have intentionally reoffended simply to return to prison because they had nowhere else to go.
“It does happen more often than people realize,” she said. “There is a tremendous lack of emergency housing in the territory.”
Testamark said that reality has been one of her strongest motivations for pursuing the Dignity Bus initiative. She recounted the case of a formerly incarcerated woman who had no housing upon release.
“We put her up in a hotel for two weeks,” Testamark said. “We spent our own money personally to take care of her.”
After the woman left the hotel, Testamark said she could not get in touch with her. She said the Virgin Islands Police Department called her one day after finding her phone number on the woman.
“They told me that she passed away,” Testamark said. “That really broke my heart, and that was one of the reasons why I pushed even harder, because many times when we have individuals that come out of the facilities here, there’s nowhere for them to go.”
Darrow-Magras emphasized that the Dignity Bus will not solve homelessness in the territory but could play a critical role for individuals with criminal histories who often face barriers accessing traditional shelters.
“It will put a minor, minor dent in the homeless situation, because our needs are much, much greater than these 18 additional beds,” she said. “But at this point, anything that is adding to the number of available beds is going to help, especially for individuals who are coming out of incarceration.”
Although case-by-case evaluations are typical, Darrow-Magras said some shelter providers will not take in people with a criminal history. However, they would not be turned away from the Dignity Bus.
“This would be an opportunity for those individuals to have a safe and clean place to rest their heads and to have dignity while they determine next steps to put their lives back on track,” she said.
The BOC purchased the Dignity Bus using federal grant funding, Testamark said, adding that the grant covered the cost of the bus and retrofitting it to include expanded amenities such as the shower and bathroom that required reducing the number of beds from the standard 22 to 18.
Tony Zorbaugh, The Source chief executive officer, said the partnership with the Virgin Islands is significant not only for the territory, but for the people who build the buses.
“These buses are built by individuals who have come out of homelessness, so for them to be able to give back to the Virgin Islands is huge,” he said today from the container port after Crowley removed the bus from the barge.
The crew who built the Virgin Islands Dignity Bus were also on hand to witness its delivery to the island. The bus is the eighth Dignity Bus developed by The Source since 2021. Three others operate in Vero Beach, Florida, where The Source is headquartered. There are two in Orlando, Florida. The others are in Rhode Island, Illinois, and now St. Croix.
“This is the farthest we’ve sent one,” Zorbaugh said.
Testamark said expansion to St. Thomas and St. John is a key goal, with plans underway to pursue additional federal grants to purchase the buses.
“The money is out there,” she said. “You just have to be persistent.”
The bus is wrapped with the image of a bananaquit — the Virgin Islands’ official territorial bird — a design Testamark said symbolizes the resilience and strength of Virgin Islanders.
“It’s not an answer to everything, but it’s a start,” Testamark said when asked what the bus means to the island’s homeless population. “And you’ll be able to give them a good night’s rest, and like the bus says, ‘transforming lives in the VI one sleep at a time.’”
Darrow-Magras said the long-term vision draws inspiration from The Source’s model in Vero Beach, where emergency shelter serves as a first step toward permanent housing and support.
“In their program in Vero Beach, the Dignity Bus is just like that emergency first step,” she said. “Then they have a number of transitional homes that have different focus and levels of support.”
The arrival of the Dignity Bus to St. Croix came about after The Source’s culinary team participated in the King of the Wing competition last June on St. Thomas and shared information with Darrow-Magras and other stakeholders about the nonprofit organization’s efforts to shelter the homeless.
“I’m just really, really thrilled and have to thank God for connections and bringing us all together,” Darrow-Magras said. “What started as helping them out at King of the Wing has turned into this incredible opportunity.”
