Testimonies at DC Council Hearings

In England, where I lived until 2015 and also served in a downtown Church, lack of clean, safe, public restrooms is not a problem. Our local governments appreciate that access to clean, safe public restrooms is critical for personal and public health. Accordingly, they have made an effort to install clean, safe public restrooms in multiple locations. We even have apps which direct us to these restrooms!

I myself am homeless and once walked more than ten blocks, from Gallery Place to George Washington University Hospital, before someone let me use the bathroom. Metro stations will not let anyone into their restrooms and most stores keep their doors locked. Even the stores I regularly buy from would not let me in, they said their restrooms were closed. Of course, the situation was becoming more urgent as time passed. If I didn’t make it, I would have been too embarrassed to catch the bus I needed.

My business is not a retail establishment, so we don’t have to clean up anything that someone may have left behind when they couldn’t get to a restroom in time. But I can tell you if you ever need a reminder that it’s Monday, simply walk down the alley between 20^th and 19^th and L and M streets and the odor will make it clear. We have clients who often drive or, in good weather, walk through that alley. It can be embarrassing.

As someone who has a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who often needs a restroom urgently, I struggle to find one that is open and available in our city. In the past, I have shared many stories of unfortunate accidents that I have experienced due to the lack of access to restrooms throughout the city, but I will spare you the stories this time.