San Francisco’s Tenderloin Makes a Compelling Case for Public Restroom Programs

Adriana Rezel reports in a paywalled article for the San Francisco Chronicle: “Since 2012, San Francisco’s 311 hotline, which allows people to make requests of city service representatives, has received more than 230,000 complaints about human or animal waste in the streets. Over that period, the number of these calls has been steadily increasing in every San Francisco neighborhood, with one exception.”

That exception might surprise—it’s the Tenderloin, the neighborhood in the city most commonly associated with people experiencing homelessness and mental illness.

According to the Chronicle’s analysis, “the average neighborhood saw a nearly 400% increase in calls from 2012 to 2021, the Tenderloin actually saw a 29% decrease.” The city’s most recent Homeless Point-In-Time Count, released in August, estimated that 20,000 people will experience homelessness in the city this year—only a slight drop from 2019, and not commensurate in the decline in feces-related 311 calls in the Tenderloin. Moreover, 311 calls increased by 95 percent over the same period, according to Rezel.

So what reason could there be for the decline? “The most likely explanation is the introduction of the San Francisco Public Works department’s Pit Stop Program,” writes Rezel.

“Started in 2014, the Pit Stop Program is an initiative that offers free-to-use public toilets in select locations. With 33 locations now open in 13 neighborhoods across the city, Pit Stops are attended by paid staff during working hours and offer running water, soap and other services such as dog waste bags and boxes for needle disposal,” according to the article.