A pair of city councillors are asking their colleagues for support in pushing back against a plan to reduce operating hours for public washrooms in downtown London, Ont.
Ward 11 Coun. Skylar Franke and Ward 13 Coun. David Ferreira made their pitch in a letter to fellow councillors, in which the pair said they recently learned city staff planned to reduce public washroom hours for Dundas Place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., down to 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The councillors, who will bring the matter during Tuesday’s council meeting, want instead to maintain current washroom hours at the Dundas Place Fieldhouse and Victoria Park for the remainder of the year through “a temporary short-term funding source.”
Franke and Ferreira also want these hours to be maintained after 2023 via a “long-term funding request through the multi-year budget process.”
“I know that to keep both the Victoria Park bathrooms and the Dundas Place bathrooms open for 12 hours (a day), which is what we’re proposing, is about $300,000 a year,” Franke told Global News.
For Franke, that is money well spent if it means giving Londoners access to a washroom.
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“When you have to use the bathroom, you have to go right away … we think it’s really important that we keep these open,” Franke said.
Another concern for Franke and Ferreira is how the move may impact those experiencing homelessness.
Jaclyn Seeler, the co-chair of the London Homeless Coalition, a group focused on advising, shaping and coordinating community responses to homelessness locally, says the impact of restricting public washroom access was already seen during the height of the pandemic.
“When those types of services started closing, whether it was public washrooms or lack of access to showers, it really impacted individuals’ dignity and right to access to public services,” Seeler said.
“It was tough for individuals trying to find places where they could use a washroom.”
The conversation around public washrooms comes as local decision-makers pay extra attention to the city’s homelessness and housing crisis.
The Health and Homelessness Summit, a group of more than 200 Londoners from dozens of organizations, has a plan in works to tackle this issue on a local scale. It will be unveiled before city councillors on Feb. 28.
An anonymous London family has donated $25 million to the plan and has offered another $5 million if community donations can match that number.
“We need to make sure that, while we’re struggling with this housing crisis, we’re still thinking about people’s basic human rights — access to food, water and use of a shower and bathroom,” Seeler said.
As for Franke and Ferreira’s pitch for councillor support to maintain washroom hours downtown, it will be discussed during Tuesday’s city council meeting, which starts at 1 p.m.
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