I would like to address the public restroom situations in our city. Many, many homeless people cannot use the bathrooms in many establishments unless they are customers.
Fortunately, many homeless people who have been around a long time know the few places where they can use the restroom. One is the filthy bathroom in McDonald’s at 13th St. and New York Avenue N.W. Another is the Subway sandwich shop on 17th and I streets N.W.
Sadly, Metro does not often let you use its restrooms in the stations, even when you are riding the train, which I think is ridiculous. A lot of this happens because establishments will have this unwritten rule about homeless people not using their bathrooms because many people who live on the street use those bathrooms every day to wash up.
So, we desperately need public restrooms in D.C.! These new pilot programs can’t start soon enough.
