DC Council responds to yearslong advocacy campaign with pilot program to improve public access to bathrooms

The DC Council handed a victory this week to the advocates who have worked for years to spotlight the limited availability of public restrooms in the District and to ensure that those in need have a place to go.

“It is shocking that our nation’s capital has so few public restrooms,” said advocate Marcia Bernbaum, who noted the widespread presence of safe, clean facilities in capitals in Europe and Asia. “It’s obvious you need public restrooms for people.”  

Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the Public Restroom Facilities Installation and Promotion Act of 2018 after giving initial assent on Dec. 4. The bill would establish two pilot programs: one involving the installation of public restroom facilities in up to two high-need areas of the city, and the other an incentive program for businesses permitting public use of their restrooms. Both programs would operate with oversight and recommendations from a working group composed of representatives from multiple DC government agencies that would shape potential expansion in future years.

“This bill increases access to clean safe restrooms for all residents,” Ward 1 DC Council member Brianne Nadeau tweeted after the bill’s passage.

Though backers say that everyone will benefit from better bathroom access, they note that tourists, children and seniors are among those with particular needs. There is also an emphasis on ensuring that facilities are available for individuals experiencing homelessness.

The legislation, which is subject to appropriation, now goes to Mayor Muriel Bowser for her signature and then to Congress for standard review. A fiscal impact statement prepared by DC’s chief financial officer estimated that implementation would cost $336,000 in the first year — largely from the installation of two public restrooms — and $722,000 over the four-year financial plan period.

The council’s approval comes after nearly two years of discussion by the council. Originally introduced in April 2017 by Nadeau and at-large members Elissa Silverman, David Grosso and Robert White Jr., the bill included directives to identify and install 10 public restrooms open 24 hours daily in dense areas of the city and to establish an incentive program that would encourage businesses to open their restrooms for public use. An earlier bill, the Open Restroom Facilities Task Force Establishment Act of 2017, was introduced in January 2017 but withdrawn upon the other bill’s submittal.

In shaping the bill, the Health Committee chaired by Ward 7’s Vincent Gray and the Committee on Transportation and the Environment chaired by Ward 3’s Mary Cheh were largely supportive of the proposal and acknowledged a need for more public restrooms in busy areas of the District. But the Committee on Transportation and the Environment — the first to mark up the bill — opted to focus on installation of up to two restrooms initially, so that city officials would have an opportunity to review the safety, accessibility, infrastructure support and workforce requirements needed to ensure that any future restrooms remain operational and safe.

The committee-approved bill will give the working group and Department of General Services time to review the installation options and the construction and maintenance costs and make adjustments before broader implementation, as explained in the Nov. 20 report submitted by the Committee on Transportation and the Environment. The bill also calls for the mayor and DC officials to work with one of the city’s business improvement districts to develop and administer an incentive program for establishments to provide the public with access to their restrooms.

“There are concerns that installing ten public restrooms and opening the Community Toilet Incentive to businesses throughout the District without first piloting these two programs may result in the failure of both programs,” said the Health Committee’s Nov. 29 report.

The working group would base its site recommendations for the public bathroom facilities on a variety of factors, including the cost, pedestrian traffic, the effect on nearby residential and commercial properties, community input, public availability of existing restrooms nearby, and access to people experiencing homeless. Advisory neighborhood commissions and the public would have a chance to submit comments on the recommended sites.

The People for Fairness Coalition (PFFC) launched its Downtown DC Public Restroom Initiative in July 2014. In the ensuing years, the campaign gained support from three business improvement districts, over a dozen advisory neighborhood commissions, and several churches and local nonprofit organizations in the city, including the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. In addition to its advocacy work, PFFC provides outreach and mentoring programs to impoverished individuals who have experienced housing instability in DC.

The coalition was instrumental in convincing Nadeau to introduce the bill in 2017. To help its members build support among DC officials and community leaders, PFFC published a feasibility study and conducted extensive research on public restroom accessibility in the city and on businesses that provide public use of restrooms.

Between 2014 and 2016, PFFC members visited establishments in five areas in and around downtown — Gallery Place, K Street NW, Georgetown, Dupont Circle and Columbia Heights — to assess whether individuals could access safe and clean restrooms during the day and at night. Whey they initially determined that approximately half of the businesses provided public access to their bathrooms, their follow-up studies found that some of those establishments had subsequently installed code locks. Researchers also observed that individuals who appeared homeless faced discrimination when trying to access some of the bathrooms.

In addition to limited access to restrooms in downtown businesses, the research notes limited access to restrooms in public places. Four public restrooms were open for limited hours during the day, according to PFFC; only three bathrooms — located at Union Station, the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial — were available 24/7.

“We are not trying to reinvent the wheel,” said Bernbaum, a mentor and adviser at PFFC. Experience in U.S. cities such as Portland, Ore., and in major world capitals in Europe and Asia shows that officials elsewhere “have successfully installed and maintained clean, safe available restrooms for everybody,” she said.

PFFC supports the amended bill, which includes new additions to the working group and calls for pilot programs of the initiatives. The proposed working group now consists of 14 people from multiple DC government agencies as well as experts on individuals experiencing homelessness, seniors, public health and urban planning. The updated legislation directs the mayor’s office to install a single public restroom in a “high-need location” of the city as part of a Public Restroom Facilities Pilot Program. Another provision in the bill, the Community Restroom Incentive Pilot Program, calls for the mayor to select a business improvement district to provide financial incentives to establishments that open their restrooms to the public. The bill envisions that the programs would expand after an opportunity for review, cost assessment and additional public buy-in.

At a January 2018 public hearing held by the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, supporters cited an urgent need for the council to act on the bill.

“It’s about dignity; it’s about sanitation; it’s about meeting the basic biological needs of your constituents,” said Sheila White, a PFFC member and an advocacy fellow at Miriam’s Kitchen. “I myself am homeless and once walked more than 10 blocks, from Gallery Place to George Washington University Hospital, before someone let me use the bathroom.”

With restroom availability particularly limited late at night and early in the morning in the five areas surveyed, PFFC supporters say individuals without stable housing can face consequences detrimental to their health, livelihood and security. People who are caught relieving themselves outdoors may face charges of disorderly conduct, punishable by fines of up to $500 and a jail term of 90 days, according to the DC code.

Dr. Catherine Crosland, director of homeless medical outreach at Unity Healthcare, spoke in her council testimony about the health repercussions for individuals experiencing homelessness, as well as the overall public health risks of limited access to restrooms and hand-washing stations in urban areas. It’s particularly dire for patients who need medication that can lead to the frequent need to urinate, such as diuretics prescribed for congestive heart failure, she said in an interview.

“I feel constricted in my ability to give people these medications when someone doesn’t have access to a bathroom,” Crosland told The DC Line. “A lot of my patients won’t take medications that make them urinate more frequently if they don’t have access to a bathroom. I have had too many patients arrested for public urination. And so, I would hate to think that medication that I am giving a patient … would ultimately and inadvertently land them in jail.”

Crosland said that the availability of bathrooms and hand-washing stations is essential “from a human and public-health perspective” and could help the city avoid potentially costly and dangerous situations.  

“There have been several outbreaks across the country of Hepatitis A which could be prevented by having access to sanitary restrooms and places for people to wash their hands,” she said.