Page 10
Street Roots • October 6-12, 2017
News
HYGIENE, from page 7
eating well, not sleeping well. God knows
what kind of contaminants they’re picking
property, that contains two shower stalls.
up.
The center began offering showers a year
Once someone has taken a shower and
ago, and Mason hopes to start offering the
used Urban Rest Stop’s other services,
service again to the center’s clientele in the
Gilboa said, it’s hard to tell if they’re
coming weeks.
homeless.
Fifteen minutes of hot water and a private
“They’re not unlike anybody else in town
shower makes a huge difference in clients’
with a backpack, and there are a lot of
lives, Mason said.
people who have backpacks and rain jackets
“Looking at the look on clients’ faces was
in Seattle,” she said.
amazing,” she said. “Saying it was a blessed
Urban Rest Stop does not operate any
outlook is not overstating it. We knew it was
mobile shower units, but Gilboa said it is
going to make people feel
something the agency is
good.”
thinking of adding.
Mason said the
" In c re a s in g access f®
O o n n i Gilboa, the
Clackamas Service
JA general manager of
h y g ie n e is c h a n g in g th e
Center is considering
Seattle’s Urban Rest
p u b lic s p e rc e p tio n @1
taking its shower cart to
Stop, does not mince
w h a t houseless p e o p le are remote locations such as
words when she speaks
camps, but there are
c a p a b le o f a n d h o w th e y
of the importance of
logistical challenges, such
s lio n ld be ca re d fo r a n d
hygiene to homeless
as limited water and
people.
e m p o w e re d to ca re lo r
time.
“We are keeping
th e m e e lw s /1’
The Village Coalition,
people alive, safe, clean
OAV1B B1KMAOS which builds and
and healthy,” she said.
STEER!NG C O M M IT T E E C H A IR ,
supports tiny-house
V IL L A G E C O A L IT IO N
The outbreak of the potentially fatal
The Low Income
villages, is working with a disease, which attacks the liver, began in
Housing Institute opened
private philanthropist to
November 2016 and has resulted in the
its first Urban Rest Stop
build a solar-powered tiny
deaths of 17 people and the hospitalization
in Seattle in 1999. Today,
house, on a trailer, that contains a shower
of more than 400, the large majority of
there are three such hygiene centers
and a washer and dryer. The coalition was
them homeless. The Centers for Disease
offering showers, laundry services and
instrumental in starting Portland’s newest
bathrooms.
Control and Prevention said earlier this year
homeless village, the new Kenton Women’s
that the outbreak represented the most
Gilboa estimates that since opening,
Village in the Kenton neighborhood.
Urban Rest Stops have served more than
deaths of any outbreak in the United States
Bikman said the hygiene trailer can be
100,000 people. Each year, the program
in the past 20 years.
built for less than $8,000, and the first one
serves between 5,500 and 6,500 people.
Hepatitis A is spread through water and
will be used at Right 2 Dream Too, a
Half of those people, Gilboa said, are clients
food contaminated by human feces. It is
homeless village in inner Northeast
who had never used Urban Rest Stop’s
easily preventable and “closely associated
Portland, in the coming weeks.
services before.
with unsafe water or food, inadequate
“Increasing access to hygiene is changing
Each client is allowed a 15-minute shower
sanitation and poor personal hygiene,”
the public’s perception of what houseless
in a stall also containing a toilet, a sink and
according to the World Health Organization.
people are capable of and how they should
a place to safely store possessions.
San Diego declared a public health
be cared for and empowered to care for
After each use, the stalls and bathrooms
emergency in September and has begun
themselves,” he said.
are cleaned with bleach and water, and the
power-washing sidewalks with bleach and
air is cleaned with an electrostatic purifier.
water, as well as opening public restrooms
The cleaning measures are cheap and
his past year, San Diego suffered a
and hand washing stations. Police are also
necessary, Gilboa said.
deadly outbreak of Hepatitis A, notably
sweeping parts of downtown where nearly
“We’re dealing with people who live
among the homeless population, illustrating 1,000 homeless people have camped.
outside,” she said. “Their immune systems
the extreme consequences of not providing
Gilboa could hardly contain her “nausea
are compromised. They’re under stress, not
hygiene services.
and anger” when she learned of the
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outbreak, not only because the outbreak was
easily preventable but also because of the
cost of hospitalizations and other responses.
“You could have built a chain of Urban Rest
Stops,” she said.
Whether an Urban Rest Stop-style
hygiene center will be built in Portland
remains to be seen. The main
recommendation of the PSU survey is to
build a hygiene center open seven days a
week for at least 12 to 14 hours, providing
showers, bathrooms, laundry facilities, and
storage or locker space.
Lisa Hawash, the Portland State
University professor who spearheaded the
hygiene survey, said she is developing a
business plan for a hygiene center in the
Portland area.
“There is a sense of urgency with
thoughtfulness,” she said.
“We have a civic responsibility to take
care of people ... to sustain people, (so they
can) get into housing,” Gilboa said. “End of
discussion.”