A friend who stayed at Occupy and now has no safe place to stay sent this in an email to a bunch of us yesterday . . . an issue you may have heard me talk about before and likely cost me my election in 2009, but its real. Listen to what he has to say . . .
Hello Everyone, been pretty busy lately, so please forgive me for missing meetings.
Anyways, have been in contact with many of our home challenged citizens out there and thought would once again bring this to everyone’s attention.
It’s great what the different groups are doing and trying to get accomplished out there, but there is something I think on a small scale that could be done/addressed now…..
Imagine, if you would…..it’s late night and something either you ate or contracted has given either the flu or food poisoning symptoms and now are faced with upset stomach and diarrhea. Where do you go? The Park systems all lock up their restrooms between 10 and 11 pm. Most businesses are closed or won’t you let you in to use them (like gas stations, especially if you can’t afford to buy anything). What do you do?
This is a problem most of us probably don’t even think about because we are mobile, are able to purchase things to be able to use a gas station or else have a home where we are able to re-cover at.
If one is homeless they don’t this. While they are desperately searching for some place to use, many times will have an accident and soil them self before reaching a destination, or other possibilities which you can imagine, as well as taking a risk of getting a ticket/arrested. Talk about a humiliating situation!
Last year, there were Port-a Johns at various parks through out the city. While a lot of times they weren’t cleaned out as often as needed and were less then ideal, at least they were there. I’ve seen fewer of these this year. (Do know that Law and Dementrol have Port-O Johns).
Know it’s a double edge sword…..Parks don’t want the bathrooms open all night due to people partying and maybe causing problems (but in public are saying the worry is vandalism?), but that would be the easiest route IMO, as many people are already living illegally in the parks (in hiding). This is just another big hurdle that being home challenged presents.
Again, don’t have all the answers, but this is Number 1 on their lists right behind having a new site.
