HOMELESS WATCH : Curbside Dignity

Few among us haven’t known an urgent need and cursed the lack of public toilets; imagine this on a grinding, humiliating daily basis.

Los Angeles homeless advocate Alice Callaghan has tried since 1987 to get public toilets on Skid Row. She had no luck with Mayor Tom Bradley, and when Mayor Richard Riordan seemed slow to respond, Callaghan and friends took the issue to City Hall, blockading a men’s room to demand a hearing.

Riordan’s office was already working to solve the issue, says Deputy Mayor Rae James. So with the help of City Council member Rita Walters, whose district includes Skid Row, an agreement in principle was reached to have the city provide a few dozen simple portable toilets, the kind you see at construction sites. The cost, including daily cleaning of each toilet, is comparatively small: $77,000 a year. The city wants eventually to follow San Diego’s lead with permanent public toilets and full-time attendants, says James, but that will take time and money.

Courts continue to strike down ordinances like the one that Santa Ana passed to prohibit public camping, so other cities may increasingly be interested in portable toilets.

Opponents, including some Skid Row businesses, fear unattended toilets will conceal drug deals and prostitution. They have a reasonable point, and perhaps a watchful eye can be funded. But the streets will only improve if basic dignity is afforded the homeless and if others are spared the sensory assault of reeking human waste. The city and county should speedily issue the final permits.