How do you spell relief? T-O-I-L-E-T

Open 24 hours a day, ‘stand-alone’ model will join shelter units

By peter korn

The Portland Tribune, Oct 9, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (10 Reader comments)

Old Town’s homeless can breathe easier – or maybe even stop holding their breath – now that new 24-hour-a-day public toilets have been opened at the Portland Rescue Mission at 111 W. Burnside St.

Monday morning, Jan Kelly could be seen inside the mission applying eyeliner at one of the hallway sinks after having used the private restroom a few steps inside the front door. Kelly, 49 and homeless, said she has begun to use the restrooms regularly. And as far as she knew, it was the only public restroom available day and night.

Public restrooms for the homeless have become a vexing issue for cities all over the country. This summer, Seattle removed five automated public toilets on which it had spent $5 million. The restrooms had became filthy, and more convenient to drug dealers and prostitutes than people truly needing to relieve themselves.

Private donations totaling $60,000 made the renovations at the mission possible, which previously had public facilities that even mission official Bill Miller said homeless people avoided.

The new restrooms opened three weeks ago, and include floor drains, stainless steel automatic flush toilets, and a vented exhaust fan.

More important, the mission’s 24-hour-a-day front door security ensures that the behavior that has doomed public toilets in Portland and other cities doesn’t occur at the new facility.

But the big news on the public facility front is that the first of the city’s new “stand-alones” – more than a Porta-Potty but less than a restroom – will be installed on Northwest Glisan Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, within the next few weeks.

City Commissioner Randy Leonard has pushed for the new public toilets, to the point of working on new designs himself. According to Anna DiBenedetto, a member of Leonard’s staff, the trick has been designing a toilet that could be durable, easily cleaned and discouraging to those who would use it for illegal business, even without a security guard nearby.

Placing a water spigot on the outside should help, according to DiBenedetto.

“Nobody’s going to be washing their laundry in there or bird-bathing,” DiBenedetto said, explaining that bird-bathing referred to people using a sink to take a shower.

Also, the toilets have been designed with a hose bib so they can be easily hosed down for cleaning, and solar panels on the roof warm pipes in the winter and provide electricity for lights at night.

The city set aside $500,000 in general fund money for the project, DiBenedetto said, and staffers hope the new design would be patented. Factoring in the initial design and start-up costs, DiBenedetto said, the city probably would get four finished toilets to install.

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