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Policy for Public Restrooms in Chapel Hill

Juliet Alegria | April 11, 2024

The Peeing Public Wants to Know...

Where’s the Restroom?

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Unpredictable

Inconvenient

Discriminatory

The availability and quality of (privately owned) public toilets can be unpredictable, leading to social disparities in access.

State-provided bathrooms still exist, of course, but largely in parks and government buildings such as libraries.

“In the absence of state provisioning, the peeing public has been increasingly forced to rely on private providers (Weinmeyer, 2022).”

Restroom policies are often applied inconsistently depending on the customer, the staff on duty, and even the time of day, leading to widespread discrimination based on appearance, race, socioeconomic status, and other implicit categories hidden in the moniker “customer.”

Chapel Hill has no 24/7 accessible restrooms for the public to use, forcing those who live and visit Chapel Hill to rely on privately owned restrooms in businesses.

The impact of this is experienced by everyone, but especially The lack of access to public restrooms impacts all people, especially people experiencing homelessness (Hochbaum, 2020; Maroko et al., 2021), people with periods (Maroko et al., 2021; Hartigan et al., 2020), and transit operators (Sarles & Gillespie, 2020). Public restrooms help to prevent spread of disease (Amato et al., 2022; Greed., 2006), including through access to handwashing (Burton et al., 2011) and toilet paper (Hughes, 1988), and promote well-being (Sclar et al, 2018.; Human Rights Watch, 2017). Availability of accessible public restrooms reduces outdoor defecation, minimizing the potential spread of disease (Amato et al., 2022). Public toilets also encourage tourism by allowing people to visit public places for longer (Webber, 2018).

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Policy: Public Restroom Petition

Submitted and presented to Chapel Hill Town Council on March 6, 2024, by BuildUp, NEXT, CEF, and IFC.

In 2019, Chapel Hill Town Council developed a 150-page report in partnership with local organizations to study and make recommendations for creating accessible public restrooms.
We request that the town move forward with a plan to provide at least 4 public restrooms in downtown Chapel Hill that adhere to best practices including being in well-traveled areas, centrally located, well-maintained, and well-lit.

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Conclusions & Implications

Public restrooms provide everyone the ability to do their business in a safe, dignified, and hygienic way.
Public restrooms promote healthier communities.

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Thank you!

Contact Me!

julieta@communityef.org

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References

Amato, H.K., Martin, D., Hoover, C.M., Graham, J.P. (2022). Somewhere to go: Assessing the impact of public restroom interventions on reports of open defecation in San Francisco, California from 2014 to 2020. BMC Public Health 22, 1673. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889- 022-13904-4

Burton, M., Cobb, E., Donachie, P., Judah, G., Curtis, V., & Schmidt, W. P. (2011). The effect of handwashing with water or soap on bacterial contamination of hands. International journal of environmental research and public health, 8(1), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8010097

Corradi, G., Garcia-Garzon, E., & Barrada, J. R. (2020). The Development of a Public Bathroom

Perception Scale. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(21), 7817.

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217817

Greed, C. The role of the public toilet: pathogen transmitter or health facilitator? Building Services Engineering Research and Technology. 2006;27(2),127–39.

Hartigan, S.M., Bonnet, K., Chisholm, L., Kowalik, C., Dmochowski, R.R., Schlundt, D., Reynolds, S.W. (2020). Why do women not use the bathroom? Women’s attitudes and beliefs on using public restrooms. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17(6), 2053. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062053

Hochbaum, R. S. (2020). Bathrooms as a homeless rights issue. North Carolina law review. 98(2).

https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol98/iss2/2

Hughes W. T. (1988). A tribute to toilet paper. Reviews of infectious diseases, 10(1), 218–222. https://doi.org/10.1093/clinids/10.1.218

Human Rights Watch. (2017). Going to the toilet when you want.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/04/19/going-toilet-when-you-want/sanitation-human-

right

Maroko, A.R., Hopper, K., Gruer, C., Jaffe, M., Zhen, E., Sommer, M. (2021) Public restrooms, periods, and people experiencing homelessness: An assessment of public toilets in high needs areas of Manhattan, New York. PLoS ONE. 16(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252946

Sarles, R. & Gillespie, R.M. Improving the safety, health, and productivity of transit operators through adequate restroom access. The National Academy of Sciences. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/download/25960.

Sclar, G. D., Penakalapati, G., Caruso, B. A., Rehfuess, E. A., Garn, J. V., Alexander, K. T., Freeman, M. C., Boisson, S., Medlicott, K., & Clasen, T. (2018). Exploring the relationship between sanitation and mental and social well-being: A systematic review and qualitative synthesis. Social science & medicine (1982), 217, 121–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.016

Swayne, M. R. E., Calzo, J. P., Felner, J. K., & Megan, W. C. (2023). Developing evidence for building sanitation justice: A multi methods approach to understanding public restroom quantity, quality, accessibility, and user experiences. PLoS One, 18(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288525

Town of Chapel Hill. (2019). Downtown public toilet facilities project team recommendations. https://www.townofchapelhill.org/home/showpublisheddocument/43764/6370336604881 70000

Webber, K.M. (2018). We need to talk about public toilets. Sustainable cities and communities. https://policy-futures.centre.uq.edu.au/files/7702/PolicyFutures2021_Webber.pdf

Weinmeyer, R. (2022). The public reliance on private toilets. LPE project. https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-public-reliance-on-private-toilets/

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