The “Portland Loo”: Coming to New Haven?
A cost-free, outdoor public toilet sits at the center of the latest version of a local homeless person’s bill of rights, which is no longer just a declaration of values but now a proposed law that describes legal recourse for victims of discrimination based on housing status.
Thomas Breen photo
HAC Chair John Huettner shows off the public toilet design Thursday.
That proposed ordinance and the public toilet that goes with it were at the center of a Homeless Advisory Commission (HAC) meeting held last Thursday night on the second floor of City Hall.
Over a dozen commissioners, city staff, activists, homeless people, and downtown business representatives debated the merits and potential costs of having a public bathroom located somewhere in the city where people of all walks of life can defecate and urinate in a clean, safe, and private environment.
Thursday night’s Homeless Advisory Commission meeting.
The particular accommodation that the commission is considering recommending is a version of the Portland Loo, the famous decade-old, stand-alone bathroom specifically designed to deter illegal activity through a combination of graffiti-proof wall panels, open grating at the top and bottom, and blue lights that discourage intravenous injection.
The late former city arts czar Andy Wolf touted this very model of public bathroom over four years ago when he first embarked on an ultimately futile campaign to install four such public toilets around downtown.
“It’s a unique solution to a universal problem,” HAC Chair John Huettner said as he passed around a pamphlet about the Portland Loo provided by homelessness advocates from legal aid, Youth Continuum, Y2Y, and Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic. “Along with these rights, we’re basically including a facility that homeless people — or anyone, I guess — can use for bathroom needs.”
Huettner and city Homelessness Coordinator Velma George.
The proposed law, formally called “An Ordinance Concerning a Bill of Rights for New Haven Residents Experiencing Homelessness,” is an outgrowth of a proposed resolution that the aldermanic Human Services Committee held a public hearing on earlier this year.
The new version of the proposed law, which has yet to be submitted by HAC to the Board of Alders for assignment to committee for a new public hearing, describes 12 fundamental rights that people without stable housing have a right to exercise without discrimination based on their housing status. Those include the right to enjoy public space, the right to employment fairness, the right to rest, and the right to emergency housing.
“Any person who claims to be aggrieved by a violation of the provisions of these rights may bring an action in the superior court for the Judicial District of New Haven,” the proposed law’s section on enforcement reads.
The provision that mandates the city buy, install, and maintain a new public toilet if the law is ultimately passed comes in the section on “The Right to Dignity in Meeting Basic Needs.”
That right reads, in full;
The opportunity to perform basic needs, such as to defecate, urinate, and to access clean water and other living necessities, with dignity and relative privacy under hygienic circumstances and conditions, in clean, safe, highly accessible public locations and facilities designed for these purposes, including public parks and buildings, free of cost to all persons regardless of housing status. To the extent that there are currently insufficient facilities designated for meeting the basic needs listed above, the City, together with community partners, will both search for appropriate grant opportunities and carry out any other activities to ensure that such facilities are in place no later than twelve (12) months after the passing of this Ordinance. The adequacy of these facilities will be reviewed annually by the Homeless Advisory Commission, and a report will be provided annually to the Human Services Committee of the Board of Alders.
New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) Deputy Director Elizabeth Rosenthal and legal aid fellow Melissa Marichal provided a fiscal impact statement for the proposed ordinance that describes a one-time $95,000 cost to the city for purchasing the toilet and a one-time installation cost of $36,200, as well as an estimated annual maintenance cost of $10,704 and annual electricity and water costs of $926.
George.
City Homelessness Coordinator Velma George raised an eyebrow at those annual maintenance cost estimates.
“I think the maintenance cost is still pretty low,” she said. This toilet would likely need to be cleaned multiple times a day.
Livable City Initiative (LCI) Relocation Specialist Nilda Torres agreed. The current maintenance cost estimate assumes $30 spent on cleaning every day. “That’s way too low,” she said.
Robert Dinuzzo and Clarence Phillips III, and Win Davis.
Win Davis, the executive director of the Town Green Special Services District, said that the best public restrooms — like the one in Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan — have staff present at all times. That’s the best way to make sure that the spaces are clean, safe, and devoid of illicit activity.
“I would say that $30 an hour would be more in line with reality than $30 a day.”
Then, upon taking a closer look at the pamphlet being passed around about the Portland Loo, Davis noted that this model doesn’t seem to lend itself to having onsite staffers present at all.
Elizabeth Larkin and Ryan Thoreson.
That’s exactly the point, Youth Continuum Outreach Case Manager and Room for All Coalition member Elizabeth Larkin said. The very design of this bathroom cuts down on the possibility of the space being used for drugs or sex work, while also limiting the potential cost of installation and maintenance by the city.
“In the design of this bathroom the surfaces are graffiti proof,” Larkin said. “They have blue lights in them to deter IV drug use. The doors open outward, so that if someone were to collapse or have some health emergency, help could be accessed quickly.
“They have open grating at the top and bottom, so that you have lines of sight and sound so that only one person can use them at a time. And the sinks are located on the outside, so that people won’t be going in there to wash their bodies or their clothes.”
Dinuzzo and Phillips.
Robert Dinuzzo, who said he has been homeless in New Haven for 13 years, recommended that the commission consider a public toilet with a door that opens automatically every five or 10 minutes, so that people couldn’t hide out in there or do anything else other than what they were supposed to be doing.
“Nobody stays more than five to 10 minutes,” he said. And if that timer solution wouldn’t work, then maybe have staff come by the toilet every 10 minutes and knock to make sure no one is camping out.
Huettner added that a former assistant police chief he had spoken to made a commitment to search for federal law enforcement grant dollars that might help cover the start up and ongoing costs of this proposed public bathroom. HAC Commissioner Clarence Edward Phillips, III encouraged Huettner to talk with new Police Chief Otoniel Reyes directly about the funding source, considering the recent retirements and resignations of higher-ups in the New Haven Police Department.
Marichal added that, instead of thinking of this as a public cost, HAC could also pitch this item to the alders as a potential public saving: A clean, safe public toilet could cut down on the amount the city parks department spends each year cleaning up greenspace used by people who currently have nowhere else to go.
Huettner instructed his fellow commissioners and the activists present to come up with a more realistic cost estimate for maintenance, and to brainstorm potential sources of funding to cover the initial and ongoing costs before the commission comes up with a final version of the proposed ordinance to submit to the alders.
“There ought to be a lot of people interested in this,” Huettner said about the toilet specifically and the bill of rights more broadly, “because they want to see downtown better.”
"Robert Dinuzzo, who said he has been homeless in New Haven for 13 years,"
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Why has New Haven or this committee not helped this man find housing for 13 years?