Council Moves Toward Installing Downtown Toilets For Homeless

DOWNTOWN AUSTIN-UT, TX -- Council members on Thursday voted to further explore the idea of installation of downtown public toilets intended for use by the homeless.

A majority of the council voted in favor of the measure, voting on a measure that directs the city manager to explore options and locations to provide safe and durable public toilets for use 24 hours a day.

The vote approving the measure was unanimous, with council members District 8 council member Ellen Troxclair and District 6 council member Don Zimmerman abstaining.

The idea for public toilets was first discussed at a Jan.14 meeting of the city’s Health and Human Services Committee.

At that previous meeting, committee member Troxclair voiced opposition to the idea of such public toilets. She disagreed with a proposal by fellow committee member Kathie Tovo to use a downtown toilet program in Seattle as a model for a local initiative.

“They had become so filthy and overrun with drug abusers and prostitutes,” Troxclair said of the Seattle program.

But on Thursday, council members disagreed with her assertion--or at least believed the benefits outweighed the disadvantages--by voting for the measure.

Rev. Kim Rogers, associate pastor at Central Presbyterian Church at 8th and Brazos streets, urged council members to act quickly to install the toilets downtown. She conveyed her message both as someone who works downtown but also stemming from her sense of social justice, she suggested.

“People who don’t have access to public bathrooms use the alley behind our church so they can maintain a shred of dignity,” she said.

Were it not for a staff member who has cleaned the alley for the past seven years, the area would never be cleaned, she said. She noted the human waste poses an environmental issue, particularly given proximity to Waller Creek.

“I don’t know how we can deny people this basic need,” the pastor said.

In downtown Austin, as in many central business districts, merchants generally are averse to allowing homeless people to use their bathrooms. Typically, that courtesy is reserved for patrons only, Rogers noted.

“Anybody in this room can buy a cup of coffee and use the bathroom,” she said. “If you’re low income, you may not have budgeted for that. So where do you go?”

She urged council member to study the Portland Loo program in Oregon, offering safe and well-ventilated units but designed in a way not welcoming to staying for an extended time.

“But simply not providing bathrooms is not an option; it’s not okay,” Rogers said. “I wanted to speak to this as an environmental issue and social justice issue that I hope we can follow up on quickly.”