SAN DIEGO — Monday’s vote was to approve the San Diego City Council’s joint response to the Grand Jury Report titled “Downtown Area Public Restrooms in the City of San Diego: Stop Kicking the Can Down the Road.”
“It’s a huge class issue,” Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said. “This is a universal need and something we simply need to get right.”
City council acknowledged that the current number of restrooms that are available 24/7 in downtown is not enough. However, the city said the restrooms primarily serve the unhoused, and believe they should be adding more shelters.
The Grand Jury filed the report on May 24, 2023, and the city has an extension to provide a response to the Superior Court’s Presiding Judge by Nov.10, 2023. Community volunteers make up the Grand Jury and investigate certain issues.
The report has eight findings and eight recommendations in which the city had mixed responses to each of them.
Overall, the city agreed adequate public restrooms may help mitigate outbreaks of Hepatitis A and COVID-19. The council did not agree that open, clean and secure public restrooms were hard to find. The council said it has since remedied the problem by adding kiosks with information and creating a webpage to help people find restrooms at: sandiego.gov/restroom.
Some city leaders said they believe this report should be handled by the county as well.
“I agree with the proposed responses to the findings and recommendations of the grand jury and in particular, the city’s suggestion that a comprehensive plan and budget be reviewed and studied by the County of San Diego, given that the county is the only health and human services agency,” Councilmember Jennifer Campbell said before Monday’s vote.
The city has said that unhoused people are the majority of people who use the public restrooms, but one person who spoke during public comment disagreed.
“I realize it’s pointed out that the majority of people using the restrooms, especially the 24/7 restrooms are unsheltered people, but as San Diego develops more late night events and venues, that’s not entirely true,” she said.
Findings from the Grand Jury Report and the cities response to each:
- Current restroom facilities in the downtown San Diego area are inadequate to provide 24/7 public access.
- The city agreed the current number of restrooms available 24/7 is not sufficient. The city said its “committed to addressing the core issue of homelessness by providing more shelter options…”
- “There is no comprehensive plan for restroom siting or assuring best practices are instituted for current and future restroom facilities in the downtown San Diego area.”
- The city agreed.
- “The City has not recently brought together partners including academia, private business groups, community associations, or homeless individuals/advocates to explore solutions for better access to public restrooms.”
- The city said it partially disagreed. “City has consistently engaged with service providers, community stakeholders, other government agencies, and academic institutions around the deployment of temporary restrooms and the development of permanent restrooms in downtown San Diego.”
- “Adequate public restrooms may help mitigate outbreaks such as hepatitis A, shigella, and COVID-19.”
- The city agreed.
- “Open, clean, and secure public restrooms are hard to locate throughout the San Diego downtown area.”
- The city said it partially disagreed with this finding. It said that there are maps downtown with public restroom information and it created a page on its site that allows people to locate open restrooms: sandiego.gov/restroom
- “The City has encountered barriers in following its 1987 policy to site and encourage public restrooms in specific types of facilities in the downtown area.”
- The city said it partially disagreed.
- “Council Policy 800-07 notes that the City will encourage nonresidential developers to locate public restrooms in each project where appropriate.” The city said it has proposed additional incentives and recognizes that there are limitations.
- “City policies and agreements need to be followed and enforced to assure accessible and adequate public restrooms.”
- The city agreed.
- “The City has not performed a comprehensive economic analysis on the costs of constructing, securing, and maintaining public restrooms, which would include current costs attributable to not having adequate restrooms (e.g., sidewalk cleaning, municipal code enforcement.)”
- The city said it partially disagreed. The city said it has information on the costs but has not done an analysis.
The following are recommendations from the report, and proposed responses from the city:
- “In the first half of FY 2024, form a team of government officials, to include the County, the Port District, MTS, as well as homeless services providers, representatives of downtown residents and businesses, academic institutions, and concerned members of the public to develop a comprehensive plan and budget for siting, security, maintenance, and funding of permanent public restrooms with hand-washing access in the downtown and contiguous areas of the City of San Diego.”
- The city this recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted.
- “Develop a cost-tracking system for public restroom-related expenditures including contracts, maintenance, City staffing, security, and capital outlays.”
- The city said it has implemented this recommendation.
- “Include and enforce in all agreements with downtown and contiguous area developers, directives in accordance with the relevant community plans and City policies, including City Policy 800-07, for siting and the long-term security and maintenance of public restrooms.”
- The city said it has implemented this recommendation.
- “Study public restroom programs in other U.S. cities, and in other countries, to provide best practices and lessons learned for San Diego planning and implementation including adoption of new restroom design and innovative technologies.”
- The city said it has not implemented this recommendation but will do so in the future.
- “Develop or enhance physical signage to direct the public to available restrooms…”
- The city said this recommendation has already been implemented.
- “Enhance the City restroom/hand-washing wayfinding system to direct the public to available restrooms…”
- The city said it has implemented this recomendation.
- “Explore and create financial incentives or other innovative mechanisms for business owners to make their restroom facilities available to all persons upon request.”
- The city said this recommendation has already been implemented.
- “Explore mechanisms to fund public restroom infrastructure including development impact fees.”
- The city said this recommendation has already been implemented.
