{"id":7824,"date":"2022-01-09T12:51:45","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T12:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.homelessvoice.org\/?p=7824"},"modified":"2022-01-17T11:26:04","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T11:26:04","slug":"customers-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.homelessvoice.org\/?p=7824","title":{"rendered":"Customers Only"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public bathrooms are shrinking, or don\u2019t exist at all. With private businesses filling the gap, where will the unhoused go?<\/h2>\n

By Andrew Fraieli<\/em><\/h6>\n

\u201cBasically the street was the bathroom. That\u2019s it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is according to one man experiencing homelessness in Manhattan who goes by Derf. \u201cWhen the pandemic started, nobody was trying to even let us walk into any store, at all. A lot of the McDonald\u2019s were closed, the Wendy\u2019s, the Burger Kings \u2014 they weren\u2019t letting us try to use the bathrooms at all. It was horrible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Public restrooms and restrooms accessible to the public \u2014 like those in a Starbucks or McDonald\u2019s \u2014 are not the same. Public bathrooms are designed for the entire public, but have been dwindling for years, slowly being taken over by these private businesses that are designed for customers, allowing the owners to charge and turn away whoever they desire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most often those being turned away are those experiencing homelessness, but they were already being refused before the pandemic too. Lockdowns and closures have simply exaggerated and shown to the general public what those living on the streets reckon with constantly: the almost complete lack of easy access to a restroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

This privatization and lacking of public restrooms becomes a classist issue according to Taunya Lovell Banks, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. Private businesses can make decisions about who can come in, for what cost, and can easily discriminate in a way that a public bathroom could not.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a class issue, it’s a race issue, it’s a gender issue,\u201d she said to <\/span>PEW last year.<\/span><\/a> And, \u201c[during the pandemic,] middle-class white people who normally have greater access to toilets in public spaces are all of a sudden being denied access. Now they’re woke to it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

New York\u2019s own <\/span>official tourist website<\/span><\/a> tells of the snags the city has faced in improving public restroom access, mentioning how the city \u201ccontracted more than a decade ago to build 20 automatic public toilets\u201d and how \u201cmost remain in a warehouse in Queens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The website does cite their <\/span>park department\u2019s website<\/span><\/a> for public toilets in parks across the city, but also says that \u201csizable department stores, large-chain bookstores and restaurants offer restroom facilities for their customers,\u201d highlighting private, customer-only, restrooms in the same breath as public ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

A rally in Manhattan in 2018<\/span><\/a> highlighted this discrepancy, with City Council member Antonio Reynoso, according to the New York Daily News, calling for the mayor to have the remaining 15 automatic toilets installed. By then, they had been sitting in the warehouse for 12 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Derf, a man experiencing homelessness in Manhattan, New York. | Photo by Andrew Fraieli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where New York gives advice and lists some public restrooms though, as well as privatized ones, the city of Miami has almost none. This leaves private businesses as the most common, and in some places sole, place to find a restroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of these private businesses require a purchase before allowing someone to use the restroom. To the general public, this may be inconsequential, but it can be as much a barrier as a locked door to those living on the street who need every penny they have to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Derf elaborates that no matter where the restroom is, and whether it\u2019s public or private, they all have a cost anyways. Between the hours spent finding one and not earning money elsewhere, and the cost of transportation to get to the restroom, the price to enter a toilet is just another thrown on top.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is assuming they are allowed into the business\u2019 restroom at all. A Dunkin\u2019 Donuts once told Mary Stewart, who has been experiencing homelessness for more than a decade in the Palm Beach area of Florida \u2014 and has previously written for the Homeless Voice \u2014 that they didn\u2019t \u201cwant business from my kind of people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t access a public restroom, and the businesses don\u2019t want you going there\u2026basically, if I had to go, I had no choice but to go in public,\u201d Stewart continues.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Peery, a lawyer who has experienced homelessness in Miami, a plaintiff from the Supreme Court case that created the<\/span> Pottinger Agreement<\/span><\/a>, and founder of the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity (MCARE), says, in Miami, there\u2019s a similar \u201cuneasy tension.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At Starbucks, \u201cthey know who\u2019s homeless and who\u2019s not. They give you that look when you come in, and give all types of reasons and excuses why they can\u2019t give you that 4 or 5-digit pin code to actually get through the door and into that restroom,\u201d he says. And at most McDonald\u2019s he knows, they are \u201cjust openly hostile to the homeless coming in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The cost Derf speaks of, whether literal or consequential, as well as this classism and outright hostility of some businesses, forces many into the embarrassing and degrading situation of having to relieve themselves outside. And in places where this is illegal, according to Banks, \u201cYou’re criminalizing having a bladder.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201c…[during the pandemic,] middle-class white people who normally have greater access to toilets in public spaces are all of a sudden being denied access. Now they’re woke to it.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

New York, where public urination can be charged as a civil offense rather than a criminal one, issued 637 court summons for public urination in 2018. 2019 had 464, and by 2020 it fell to only 270 according to their <\/span>online criminal and civil court summons reports.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Miami, on the other hand, has an <\/span>ordinance<\/a> stat<\/span>ing that urination and defecation in public, unless by a child under 5 or by someone with a medical issue related to the bowels or the bladder, is punishable by a $500.00 fine, up to 60 days in jail, or both.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to police reports supplied to the Homeless Voice by the Miami police department under a public records request, they arrested 12 people in 2018 for public urination, three in 2019, three in 2020, and seven in 2021 so far.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other Florida cities have similar laws. Tampa, for example, has similar arrest rates as well, arresting one person in 2018 for public urination, eight in 2019, one in 2020 and one in 2021 so far.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s department of Resilience and Public Works told the Homeless Voice, though, that it had no comprehensive record of the public restrooms within the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Peery, this is because there are none.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sole public restrooms are in the public library, he says, and inside the Government Center. Both of which are closed at night, and the library is closed on Sundays.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perry references another public restroom that was built in late 2019 under the<\/span> Metrorail station at Flagler Street and NW First Avenue for $300,000<\/span><\/a>, but which has since been demolished. \u201cTalk about fiscal responsibility and prudent use of public funds,\u201d Peery says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stewart describes the public restroom issues in Boca Raton, where she\u2019s currently experiencing homelessness, as more nuanced, saying the \u201caccess\u201d to public restrooms has certainly decreased \u201cbecause they started running homeless people out of the park.\u201d She also \u201cdefinitely haven\u2019t noticed them building public restrooms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s New York, Boca Raton, or Miami, people are being arrested for relieving themselves outside, and many of those people are experiencing homelessness and have no other choice. The need for public restrooms are not solely tied to helping people experiencing homelessness though, public bathrooms would help everyone. But often, homelessness is used as the excuse to remove or not even build them.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the <\/span>Miami Herald<\/span><\/a>, the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust \u2014 the agency in charge of all funding, planning, and management of Miami\u2019s priorities towards homelessness \u2014 is \u201cphilosophically opposed to building more public bathrooms.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trust\u2019s leaders believe [public bathrooms] only encourage homeless people to stay on the streets rather than move to a shelter where they can receive a continuum of care, education, job training and financial support to make the transition to permanent housing,\u201d they continue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ron Book, the Chairman of the Trust, which has a $65 million annual budget, told the <\/span>Miami New Times<\/span><\/a>, “Bathrooms and showers do nothing but sustain homelessness. It keeps folks out on the streets. It does nothing to end it.” He also elaborated to <\/span>the Miami Herald<\/span><\/a> that \u201cbathrooms serve as a magnet for the [homeless] population to congregate and it becomes a burden on that area. You could try moving them away from businesses and condos, but where?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In an <\/span>op-ed in the Miami Herald<\/span><\/a> in 2019, Peery directly responds to the Trust\u2019s \u201cphilosophical opposition\u201d saying, \u201cI did not become homeless as a result of relieving myself in public facilities. And my own trips to the rare public bathrooms in downtown Miami certainly did not encourage me to remain homeless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, in 2021, Peery tells the Homeless Voice that the public restroom situation has \u201ctransgressed from ridiculous to dangerous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[The Homeless Trust] has a policy of closing public restrooms and it has significant, concrete, public health implications to it. The failure to be able to wash your hands, control infections, during the height of the century\u2019s worst pandemic? That\u2019s outrageous. It\u2019s dangerous, reckless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Homeless Trust agreed to an interview, but did not communicate further prior to publication.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Peery, Miami\u2019s \u201creluctant\u201d response in early 2020 was to install about half a dozen port-o-potties for a period from April 2020 to late winter. He says the city did not maintain them, allowing feces to flow out of them for two to three weeks at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI used to think it was a matter of bureaucracy or incompetence, but after several years of dealing with this, I believe they know exactly what they are doing, these are intentional actions,\u201d says Peery. \u201cThey are intentionally keeping these services off the streets in order to create these conditions, to justify their authoritarian actions that they take against the poor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Trust\u2019s leaders believe [public bathrooms] only encourage homeless people to stay on the streets…”<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To Derf, the idea of public bathrooms perpetuating homelessness is \u201ca crock of shit.\u201d He sees the issue being misled anxieties on improper usage of bathrooms \u2014 be it drugs, sex, or to sleep in. Derf agrees that these misuses happen, but that people like Book aren\u2019t empathetic enough to care to figure it out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another argument, expressed by Book, is that those living on the streets want to stay there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stewart thinks there does need to be a pressure for those experiencing homeless to go to shelters, or find help to get a job and apartment, \u201cbut if you\u2019re not providing adequate resources, not providing sufficient alternatives, than it\u2019s only humane to allow homeless people to stay outside, to build restrooms for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But to Peery, emphasizing the difference between urban homelessness and being in the woods, any excuse saying people living on the street want to live there is wholly ridiculous. \u201cWhy would anybody subject themselves to the theft, the violence, the intense trauma of urban homelessness? That\u2019s intensely traumatizing, nobody chooses that. Absolutely no one, without question.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He sees the argument as presenting those experiencing homelessness as the problem since it\u2019s \u201ctheir choice\u201d, not the system\u2019s fault.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you say that people choose to do something, then you can justify criminalizing laws and voluntary confinement and things like that,\u201d says Peery. \u201cIf people are doing things involuntarily, then that requires you to look at structural issues and the systemic changes that need to be made. And they want to maintain the status quo, they don\u2019t want to change the system. They\u2019d rather blame the victims of the system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Public restrooms could, rather, solve many of the issues that are frequently complained about, by the city and the public, says Stewart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAdding public restrooms will not only be beneficial for the homeless, but will be beneficial for the public,\u201d she says. \u201cLittering, the sanitation, the poor hygiene, the public urination: the public restroom will be the solution to a lot of these issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With this policy against public restrooms, they\u2019re actually \u201ccreating the very conditions they complain about,\u201d Peery says.<\/span><\/p>\n

He hears city commissioners complain about trash, but not put more trash receptacles or sanitation services. According to Perry, they say those experiencing homelessness are \u201cmessing up life for us \u2018normal tax-paying citizens\u2019, but they\u2019re the ones who actually created those conditions that they\u2019re not only complaining about, but using to justify violating the civil rights of the homeless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These issues exist outside of Florida and New York as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ACLU California released a report called \u201cOutside The Law: The legal war against unhoused people\u201d where they pointed out the same issue of how \u201clocal governments also withhold lifesaving services such as public restroom facilities and then criminalize unhoused people for necessary bodily functions like urination\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And the North Carolina Law Review highlighted how dog parks and bags for disposing of dog waste are common, yet public restrooms are rare, saying, \u201cThe failure to provide bathrooms while prohibiting public urination and defecation is dehumanizing enough, but the prioritization of dogs over homeless individuals adds insult to injury.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLook at who the head of the homeless trust is, and where he comes from and who the Homeless Trust serves, they don\u2019t serve the homeless, in fact, the Homeless trust doesn\u2019t trust the homeless,\u201d Peery continues. \u201cThey\u2019re serving the business community, they\u2019re serving the condo owners and residents, the corporate interests downtown, that\u2019s who the constituency is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no sufficient alternatives to homelessness, there\u2019s really not, and until there are sufficient alternatives, they need to allow people to camp out,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cThey need to build things like public restrooms, allow homeless people to have access to toilets, running water, take a shower, wash up \u2014 because anything less than that is inhumane.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public bathrooms are shrinking, or don\u2019t exist at all. With private businesses filling the gap, where will the unhoused go? 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