San Jose man re-purposing abandoned RV to distribute supplies to homeless

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KTVU) - A homeless advocate in San Jose says he'll be able to do a lot of good in local encampments, after a generous gift from a local business.

An old RV is about to get a new purpose. The carburetor is leaking. The tires are shot.

But all Pastor Scott Wagers sees when he looks at this RV is potential. A way for him to get supplies to the homeless.

Wagers, of CHAM Deliverance Ministry, says, "it just kinda fell into our lap like divine intervention."

It's been two years since Wagers' old RV died. It had been fondly known as the Mercy Mobile.

Friend Rick Crawford was determined to help him get a new one, so he reached out to the owner of Almaden RV.

Crawford says "when you ask people to help homeless, there's not a lot of generosity sometimes. But with this particular idea it has just been a real easy road."

As it turns out, Almaden had an RV that had been abandoned by its owner and had been sitting on the lot for five years.

Owner Chris Caprino said he'd be happy to donate it.

Caprino says "they left it here, and we don't want to just junk it. We want to make good use of it. There's a lot of homeless what have you out there."

The 32-foot-long RV needs quite a bit of work.

Almaden is donating the labor, but Wagers is trying to raise money to help with replacement parts.

He says "the first one reached thousands of people. We gave out thousands of meals. You know people came in and got clothes out of the clothes closet. But we need to fix this one up."

Wagers, a long-time homeless advocate, thinks he'll be able to do even more good with this new RV and reach even more people in the encampments.

He says "bring people in, give them a haircut, give them a shower. give them some clothes. Transformation. New person."

He's calling this the Mercy Mobile 2.

And while he's grateful for the generosity he's received so far, he's hoping for just a little bit more to get it on the road.

"Let's come together as a community to make something great out of you know... a fixer upper," says Wagers.

They think it will take about $10,000 and two weeks to get this RV road ready.

They've set up a web page http://mercy-mobile.com and a GoFundMe to help defray the costs.