SALT LAKE CITY — Over the last three years, 40 men living on Salt Lake City’s streets have posed for the Nomad Alliance’s ‘Sexy Nomad’ calendar.
“It's like, ‘Oh my god, I look like a god,’ and I really did, I felt like I did,” said Ben Serralles. “It was a really godly experience for me.”
“I thought it was kind of cool,” said David Davis. “It made me feel a little empowered.”
Kseniya Kniazeva, Executive Director of the Nomad Alliance, spoke with FOX 13 News and coordinated interviews with some of the models. Her vision was to give these guys the confidence they’ve lost, she said.
“Their biggest barrier is a lack of self-esteem,” said Kniazeva. “They all tell me they're suicidal and that they reach for drugs because it's still suicide. They've lost the faith in themselves, and I wanted to give that back to them.”
All of the models are paid, said Kniazeva. They get showers and haircuts before their photoshoots.
“The reason why we have them shirtless is because it's the greatest equalizer,” she said. “There's no identifying marks, there's no stains, there's no rips. You can't see how the fit is poor or what brand the shirt is. All you see is a human being.”
Melissa Foster, a former volunteer, says ‘Sexy Nomad’ is exploitative of these vulnerable men.
“Their mental health is already, you know, not good, and doesn't help when you're back and forth with them,” she said.
The state Office of Homelessness is currently looking into a formal complaint against the nonprofit. A woman whose family was in the process of receiving donations from Nomad Alliance told the Washington Post her husband, “was coerced into doing those photos,” and “he didn’t want to do those.”
“Seeing her abuse her power with some of our homeless men, I realized maybe should have paid more attention to what she was saying,” said Foster.
FOX 13 News asked the State Homeless Coordinator about the formal complaint against the nomad alliance; he says they are still investigating.
