Posts Tagged ‘public restroom advocacy’
Do Americans enjoy the Human Right to Water and Sanitation?
January 23, 2019 In a recent segment on NPR affiliate KLCC, Oregon journalist Denise Silfee points out that the UN General Assembly affirmed the human right to water and sanitation in 2010 while the United States failed to join the majority of nations voting for the resolution. In her interview with people sheltering in a…
Read MoreHepatitis A and California’s lack of public toilets
The reluctance of Southern California’s local governments to provide public restrooms has resulted in a public health crisis. (For updates, see comments at end) San Diego County reports Hepatitis A is the cause of death of 16 people, 14 of which were unhoused citizens living in the city’s East Village. Today 444 San Diegans are…
Read MoreSocial inclusion, toilet rights, and legal protection for transgender Americans
Public toilets have long been at the forefront of human rights advocacy in the United States. During the past year, the transgender community and parents of young children who identify with a gender other than their birth sex have successfully advocated for laws requiring gender-neutral toilet rooms to ensure greater privacy. This expansion of the…
Read MoreGlobal Homeless Day: Toilet Solutions from France for the USA
“The restroom thus becomes a tool for figuring out just how a society functions – what it values, how it separates people from one another, and the kinds of trade-offs that come to be made,” says sociologist Harvey Moltoch. While we at PHLUSH believe in safe and accessible toilets for all people (families, children, those…
Read MoreStaying human through hygiene while houseless
Living houseless in an urban environment requires personal savvy and logistic skill. Days are often an endless series of searches, lines, and waits: finding the next meal, a safe place to sleep, a public restroom. Here at PHLUSH, we see toilet availability as a human right and advocate for building urban public restrooms that serve…
Read MoreGottaGo! campaigning for public toilets in Ottawa
This guest blog post is from Joan Kuyek of GottaGo!. The GottaGo! campaign in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, is advocating for a network of open clean, accessible public toilets and water fountains in key places in the region. Currently, the only public toilets in Ottawa are in recreation centres, libraries and large parks. When the programming…
Read MoreStories from the Street: PSU team explores toiletlessness
July 1, 2013 Students from Portland State University’s Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Affairs and Planning, have recently completed a project on the consequences of toiletlessness. After spending the winter academic term on background and planning, the Right to Relief team spent the spring term exploring the issues in collaboration with PHLUSH. They hit…
Read MoreTime for Portland Parks to take toilets seriously
The cost-cutting recommendations of Portland Parks and Recreation’s Budget Advisory Committee call for 189 toilet closures The proposal is for Parks to replace half the number of closed stalls with plastic portables while laying off the Parks Technicians who understand the social environment and perform many other duties besides cleaning restrooms and hauling away trash. (UPDATE: PP&R’s official…
Read MoreCelebrate First Flush of Portland Loo #5 at 1 pm Jan 31st
Isn’t it weirdly cool that we live in a city that celebrates the first flush of every new Portland Loo? Actually, these repeated inaugurals tell us something. A product has met a need. The city has provided a service citizens think is important. People are using the Loo and talking about it. The co-location of…
Read MoreBuilding Safe Toilet Design into Shared Urban Space
That’s the title of our paper presented at the recent World Toilet Summit in Hainan, China. PHLUSH believes that public toilets should be as much a part of the streetscape as sidewalks and street lamps. But as public restroom advocates all over North America know, it’s an uphill battle. For many public officials the…
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