Photo by Rachel Sadon.

Just before Margie Wooten lost her home three months ago, she packed up all of her belongings and put them in storage. She carries only a small bundle of clothes while looking for a place to sleep at night, and only one of them is a bra.

A slip of a garment, bras are one of the many small luxuries that most women take for granted. But like underwear, pads, and tampons, they can be nearly impossible for homeless women to get.

“And if you don’t have these things, you think about it all the time,” says Alicia Horton, the executive director of Thrive DC. The non-profit, which provides services to the homeless and vulnerable individuals, intends to make them one fewer thing for struggling women to worry about.

“It doesn’t necessarily fit with what people think of when they think of agencies like ours. But for a woman we would consider this a fairly critical service,” Horton said.

The challenges of menstruation are finally being acknowledged by global health organizations that work with women and girls in low-income countries. Local advocates say it’s time that we do the same for women in the District who also lack reliable access to toilets, showers, or washing machines.

One of only six places in the District where the homeless can do their laundry for free, Thrive’s recent efforts to fill in the gap started with a slogan: “Homeless Women Should Be Able To Make It Through The Night. Period.” They added maxipads, one of the most-requested items among the women they serve (according to Thrive’s director of social services Jessica Macleod, it is far more common to find tampons at the food bank), to their Amazon wish-list.

Within a week or two, boxes and boxes started arriving at the office. The issue clearly resonated. “It’s something you don’t normally think about as a need. But, certainly women were like ‘oh yeah,’ ” Horton said.

Volunteer and communications coordinator Greg Rockwell, who came up with the campaign, got to thinking about other resources women would want but would have trouble getting.

To that end, Thrive reached out to Stephanie Jacek, the owner of the Adams Morgan specialty shop Le Bustiere Boutique. Jacek—whose industry is based on the twin realities that well-fitting bras are a physical necessity and that even hidden bits of lace or satin can make women feel more confident—immediately wanted to help. Much to everyone’s surprise, so did her suppliers Curvy Kate and the Little Bra Co., which is how they found themselves with over 500 new bras and underwear to distribute.

On Tuesday, Thrive and Jacek held the first of what they hope to be a monthly event: “A Perfect Fit Day.” Wooten was among the 30 or so women who received new, properly sized undergarments. “I never knew what size bra I really was before,” she said.

Added Debra, after receiving a matching red bra and underwear set from Curvy Kate: “It’s very comfortable and not something I would have been able to purchase.” But even more than that, “It’s very pretty. Makes you feel good.”

And that, of course, was the point. But Horton also hopes events like these get donors, volunteers, and others thinking about the particular needs of homeless women on the street.

“Women on the street are in danger in a way that men are not, generally speaking. From just random kinds of violent episodes to sexual assault, it’s something that women face regularly who are trying to survive without a home,” she said. And not only are women’s needs and challenges different, there are fewer services available to them.

“And then you couple the added risk and danger, with these additional issues of hygiene,” she said. “We are hoping to be able to highlight that.”

Update (6/29/2016): A year after their first event and Thrive DC has continued their efforts to ensure that homeless women have access to bras, underwear, maxipads, and tampons.

“That was the first time we’d ever done anything with bras, and we had a great response. The women loved it,” Rockwell says. “It was a need that we really hadn’t identified. Or rather, that we didn’t realize we could have a measurable impact on. Once we did it, became part of our mission.”

They currently provide bras to between five and ten women a week. And at periodic “Perfect Fit” days, they serve between 80 and 100 clients.