City Council will consider leaving some of the restrooms at West Hollywood Park and Plummer Park open day and night, all year round, in order to accommodate homeless people, as well as delivery personnel and others with particular medical needs.
The councilmembers are set to receive an analysis and recommendations on potential sites, opportunities, challenges, and fiscal impacts at their meeting Monday night. Council’s Subcommittee on Homelessness initiated the request, leading to an examination of how public restrooms can be made more available to various groups within the city, including those experiencing homelessness, delivery personnel, and individuals with particular medical needs.
Specifically, the process will consider opening one restroom at West Hollywood Park at the north end of the park closest to the dog parks and the restrooms on the exterior of the Community Center at Plummer Park. If approved, this program is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2024. City Hall will also be charged with developing a campaign that will publicize the location and operational hours of existing public restrooms in the city.
Park restrooms have been a lightning rod of a topic for West Hollywood residents in recent years. Recent plans to renovate Plummer Park’s restrooms into a gender-neutral facility drew much consternation from members of the public, who feared they would be a magnet for drug addicts and sex workers, as they had been in the past. Former Councilmember Steve Martin warned they would become a “bordello for our prostitutes.”
The push for 24/7 park restrooms began on Nov. 15, 2021, when Council received a request from the subcommittee to explore increased access to public lavatories. City staff then returned to the subcommittee on Aug. 25, 2022, to discuss and receive input. Following further investigation and input from the newly constituted subcommittee (consisting of Councilmembers Chelsea Byers and John Heilman) on June 22, 2023, the decision was made to propose a public campaign and to expand access to existing restrooms.
The proposed expansion of access to public restrooms comes after recognizing that information regarding the availability and accessibility of such facilities is rarely published. Various factors, such as limited hours of operation, transportation difficulties, and insufficient cleanliness, have restricted access to public restrooms.
This move aligns with the efforts of government entities across the country that operate and maintain public restrooms, recognizing the vital role these facilities play in meeting the sanitation needs of facility patrons, persons experiencing homelessness, service providers, and others who rely on public restrooms.
The City Council’s decision on these recommendations will be closely watched, as it may set a precedent for other jurisdictions looking to enhance the accessibility of public restroom facilities.
What could go wrong?
As a regular user of Plummer Park this proposal is a terrible idea. The public restrooms are all but inaccessible already. One of the restrooms at the tennis center has been privatized solely for the use of the one day per week vendors at the Monday Farmers’ Market. The four remaining restrooms are occupied for hours at a time. First the sinks are deliberately clogged to be used for bathing, laundry, and body depilation. Then in come the friends on bicycles, scooters, and carts for the sale and consumption of drugs, and for prostitution. Any attempts to use the restrooms… Read more »
If this passes then they might as well give the homeless bikes and cars too. It’s no wonder we have so much homeless because they’re basically welcomed with open arms and made to feel extremely comfortable. This city is becoming a trash box.
wow- I have never seen such a bunch of entitled royalty as most in this thread……God help humanity
It’s already a homeless park. Why not give them the restrooms……just no taxpayer dollars to service it in any way.
We need to make the vagrants much less comfortable loitering around West Hollywood, starting with the insane woman who has been blocking the sidewalk on Santa Monica Blvd and Kings Road for 5 years. She hurts thousands of people every day and no one does a damn thing about it.
VENICE
So that’s why West Hollywood hired the blue shirt ambassadors rather then rounding up the homeless and taking them to hotels like Los Angeles does…The S(atqu33ns want to see urine and feces on the sidewalks 🤣
Is the City Council also proposing 24 hours security along with social workers/mental health crisis workers in our parks? I think residents would be concerned about Plummer Park becoming a homeless encampment after sunset.
Thank you, Steve. Yes this is going to become even more dangerous.
I for one would rather have them use bathroom facilities instead of the sidewalks. However, if we are going to do this, it should be for an initial trial period of 3 months and reevaluated. It should also come with a mandatory 24 hr bathroom guard/cleaning service stationed at each 24 hour restroom to insure that the restrooms remain clean and are not being used for drugs or prostitution. Without supervision and cleaning this will be a disaster.
I disagree. I would rather the homeless continue to use the sidewalks as their personal bathroom. It’s important to remind people that their continuing to vote for the same Clown Show for the last almost 40 years, results in our current situation. Sepi and company would be thrilled if the nastiness was just relegated to a few small bathrooms tax-paying residents would be too scared to enter. That way, people will forget about who caused this. No, let the vagrants and bag-people go anywhere they want, as they currently do. Well done, voters who continue to vote for politicians solely… Read more »
Majority of us in West Hollywood enjoy our protections afforded by rent control. You won’t win an argument fighting against it. Make renters your ally instead.
I think the City should provide self-cleaning public toilets. Those could be installed in high traffic locations.
Is there a Leader somewhere over there in the oasis of fruits & nuts that is bold enough to bring back institutionalizing vagrants with certain mental health conditions where their immediate needs in life will be met?
Homelessness is a definite health hazard and is unsafe.
I’m sure at midnight people will be waiting in line for their last pee n poo for the night
Or maybe they will start a tent city in the park similar to Portland.
Head clown Sepi if she really cared should put up porta potty’s on her street and around the city.
Is there a reason other big city’s have not done this?
FML. YEP ALL GOOD THINGS FROM THIS.