DOWNTOWN : Drug Use Alleged at Skid Row Toilets

Nearly a month after portable toilets were installed on Skid Row sidewalks, some social service groups and businesses have filed complaints about drug use and sanitation concerns with the outhouses, officials said.

“The toilet became a crack house the very first day it was in place” outside the Salvation Army’s Safe Harbor, said the center’s chaplain, Maj. Patricia Jolley. “Our staff is telling us that (people) are using cocaine in those houses in the evening.”

Because Safe Harbor treats 50 women with drug or alcohol problems, Jolley said the smell of cocaine from the toilet could make it difficult for the patients to recover from their addiction.

She has asked that it be relocated farther down or across the street, a recommendation that housing officials were considering last week.

The Salvation Army’s request is among four appeals that officials have received since the city’s Board of Public Works approved spending $53,000 in July on a six-month pilot program. A total of 16 portable toilets were placed on Skid Row sidewalks in an area bounded by 2nd and 7th streets, Gladys Avenue and Main Street.

James Washington, chief street use inspector, said it’s too early to determine whether cleanliness on Skid Row has improved since the toilets were installed. But Washington has heard from police, who say the program is working. “The individuals are using (toilets) and some of the concerns about urination on the public walls there are declining,” he said.

The toilets are “a godsend” for the homeless, said Vernon Spaulding, management analyst for the city’s housing department.

Though drug needles and syringes have been found inside some of the toilets, Spaulding said, no figures are available as to how many were recovered and no arrests have been made for drug use inside the outhouses.

Meanwhile, Spaulding is working to resolve the other three appeals--from Lan Jer Lin and Hsi Shong Lin, owners of a wholesale electronic, housewares and Asian goods shop at 372-376 S. Los Angeles St.; Fred Jordan Missions at 445 Towne Ave., and Asian Rehabilitation Services at 601 S. San Pedro St.

They cite concerns ranging from odor from the toilets to the structures attracting more homeless in front of businesses. No toilets have been placed outside Fred Jordan Missions and Asian Rehabilitation Services pending consideration of alternative sites for the outhouses, Spaulding said.

All four appeals might be heard by the public works board at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, he said.