Public restrooms aimed at serving the homeless community in Costa Mesa are no longer going to be made available due to a lack of community support.
The proposal for the restrooms was in discussion for more than a year before the sanitary district eventually focused on the idea of mobile restrooms. The portable toilets would be placed on a trailer so they could be stationed wherever they were needed. A paid attendant would be present at all times to make sure the restrooms were clean and used for their intended purpose and 'would not become a hotspot for drug use'.
Many local businesses rejected the idea that would give the homeless a place to relieve themselves with the goal being less public urination and defecation in the streets.
About 80% of the roughly 280 businesses that participated in a survey about homeless put together by the sanitary district said local homeless people have affected them in some way and 49% said supervised public restrooms would not alleviate the issues.
Sanitary district board President Mike Scheafer told the Los Angeles Times he was surprised the survey results were so negative but added, but talked about the efforts to still work on the homeless problem.
"I'm proud that we took the humane approach and looked for alternatives."
Efforts are still being placed to continue to work on the homeless problem in the community which is much bigger than just the public urination and defacation. Many of the business owners who rejected the proposal claimed problems with loitering and littering among their major complaints.
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