Street roots., October 06, 2017, Page 7, Image 7

Street Roots • October 6-12, 2017
News
Page 7
Clean
slate
As the
area’s
homeless figures rise,
com m unities work
to address the need
fo r better hygiene
on the streets
BY A M A N D A WALDROUPE
P H O T O B Y K E N H A W K IN S
S T A F F W R IT E R
uring the last week of September,
two portable toilets were placed in
downtown Oregon City, providing
access to public restrooms in downtown 24
hours a day, every day of the week, for the
first time in the city’s history.
They’re called “Arta Potties,” named after
the community organization in Salem that
installs porta-potties throughout that city’s
downtown core. The public toilets are
painted over with scenes of Oregon City’s
history. The Oregon City Police Department
spearheaded the installation, citing the need
for public bathrooms, especially among the
city’s homeless population.
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F A R T A P O T T IE S
This effort and others in the region are
part of the renewed effort to provide basic
n Portland, the availability of hygiene
hygiene services to people experiencing
services is patchwork. The day center at
homelessness. While assistance in food and
Bud Clark Commons, operated by Transition
shelter are commonly discussed by policy
Projects, allows for 100 showers and 48
advocates and lawmakers, hygiene is often
loads of laundry each day.
overlooked. But as homelessness in the
JOIN, the outreach agency in outer
Portland area increases - by 10 percent,
southeast Portland, offers 40 showers each
according to this year’s biennial point-in­
weekday and vouchers for a nearby laundry,
time count - and the region’s affordable-
but those showers and the rest of the
housing crisis shows little abatement, more
agency’s day center has been closed for
efforts are being made to provide such
much of this year for mold remediation and
services to homeless people.
repairs.
A Portland State University study
The Portland Loo, the stainless steel,
released this spring surveyed 550 homeless
European-style public bathrooms
people and found that the majority of
championed by former city commissioner
respondents “struggle to meet their basic
Randy Leonard, was built as a way of
hygiene and health needs because of a
providing bathroom services for homeless
shortage of showers, bathrooms and
people.
washers and dryers.”
When they appeared in downtown and the
This isn’t just an odor issue. Not
Pearl District, they caused a great deal of
showering or having access to a shower and
controversy and “not in my backyard”
backlash. The public’s attention and the
other hygiene services is linked to
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
controversy has since dissipated, and six
have been built in Portland in addition to
(MRSA), fungal, strep and staph infections,
the original four planned by Leonard’s
and skin infections such as scabies and head
office, said Evan Madden, sales and
and body lice.
Lack of cleanliness and hygiene could also marketing director of Madden Fabrication,
be one of the main reasons homeless people the company that builds the loos. The loos
are also installed in new parks in Portland
are so stigmatized by the public.
and are replacing old brick-and-mortar
“It’s immediately ‘othering,’” said David
bathrooms.
Bikman, steering committee chair of the
Health care is the immediate concern. In
Village Coalition, which builds and advocates
the PSU survey, 40 percent of respondents
for tiny home villages for the homeless in
Portland. “Being clean is pretty important to reported medical issues, including staph
infections, scabies, lice and open sores - all
your pride and sense of self worth.
Top: The Clackamas
Service Center,
pictured here before the
fire, continues to offer
hygiene services.
D
I
Left: A mobile shower
cart on the center’s
property contains two
shower stalls.
Far left: Public “Arta
Potties” were placed in
downtown Oregon City
in September.
P H O T O BY A M A N D A W A L D R O U P E
of which could be prevented with better
hygiene.
But the consequences of poor hygiene
can go far beyond health. In the survey, one
in five respondents said they were turned
away from sleeping in a shelter due to poor
hygiene. The same number also said their
poor hygiene meant being denied access to
food pantries or other services.
Earlier this month, Islamic Social
Services of Oregon hosted its annual “Day
of Dignity” event, where various agencies
provided free medical and dental care, hair
cuts, and other services to homeless people.
The organization distributed 550 hygiene
kits containing toothbrushes, toothpaste,
combs, soap, towels and deodorant.
When the Day of Dignity event started 10
years ago, Laila Hajoo, president of Islamic
Social Services of Oregon, said that
providing hygiene kits was a fundamental
part of the service.
“If it were plentiful and easy to get,
(people) wouldn’t be asking for it,” she said.
This year’s Day of Dignity event was the
first time the Portland Menstrual Society, a
Portland State University student group that
advocates for access to female hygiene
products, participated in the event. Within a
few hours, the group handed out 200 kits,
each containing enough sanitary pads and
tampons to last a week, and 50 menstrual
cups.
“Easily, just at our tent, we saw 300
people,” said Lynn Hager, the society’s
founder.
One of those people, Hager said, was a
homeless man who told the group that his
12-year old daughter, also homeless, had just
started her period.
“When people think of the houseless
community, they think about the need for
food, shelter, clothes, warm blankets,” said
Jennee Martinez, a member of PMS. But
when it comes to hygiene and menstrual
supplies, she said. “It’s commonly
overlooked.”
n July, the Clackamas Service Center
closed because of a fire. It is the only
homeless services agency of its kind within
miles in southeast Portland. But despite the
damage, volunteers and staff never stopped
offering some its most important services.
Within days of the fire, agency staff set up
tables in front of the center’s building,
offering food and clothes from the clothing
closet, distributing mail, and giving out
hygiene items such as hand sanitizer and
soap. The agency is also renting two
portable sinks with hand sanitizer and two
port-a-potties. A medical unit from Outside
In, a homeless youth services agency, visits
the center once a week, and Debra Mason,
the center’s executive director said, “We
needed a presence” so that the medical unit
had patients to serve.
The Clackamas Service Center also uses
a mobile shower cart, located on its
I
See HYGIENE, page 10