The city's failure to deliver public restrooms is not the first sign of trouble for its sweeping homelessness plan, but it’s a painful one for the residents of Skid Row.

For years, restrooms and hygiene facilities have been a top request of homeless advocates in Los Angeles’s Skid Row. Advocates say public restrooms are critical for the dignity and health of people without access to private bathrooms, from homeless populations to seniors and other pedestrians.
In 2016, as part of a nascent strategy on homelessness, Los Angeles pledged to create a network of mobile showers across the city, and in December 2017 opened a cluster of temporary facilities in Skid Row. But just months later, the L.A. Times reports, those facilities are gone—prompting big questions about the city's ability to carry out the rest of its comprehensive plan.
The 2016 plan calls for new permanent supportive housing and a number of other housing and shelter programs—enough to prompt the creation of a new "homelessness coordinator" position to juggle it all. But despite the hundreds of millions of dollars allocated for these programs, "the slow and faltering bathroom rollouts raise questions about whether logistical problems and red tape are contributing to Los Angeles' homelessness crisis," the Times warns.
FULL STORY: It took more than a decade to open public bathrooms on skid row. After three months, they're already gone

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units
Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
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Bend, Deschutes County Move to Restrict Major Homeless Encampment
City and county officials are closing off portions of an area known as Juniper Ridge where many unhoused residents find shelter, hoping to direct people to housing and supportive services.

High Housing Costs Driving Down Transit Ridership in LA
When neighborhoods gentrify and displace lower-income residents, transit ridership suffers, new research shows.

Iowa Legalizes Accessory Dwelling Units
A new law will allow property owners to build ADUs on single-family lots starting on July 1.
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