Seattle has been through this; Arcata, California; and Santa Cruz, too. Public defecation. It's even worse in Vancouver, where:

The ripe stench of human excrement is getting stronger in downtown lanes, curling the stomachs of workers who no longer want to relax by the back door for smoke breaks....The 10-block city slum is swollen with up to 5,000 injection drug users who have less control of their bowels. Many are homeless and have nowhere to go to the toilet. Often the drug users roam out of the neighbourhood into alleys linking downtown businesses.

...The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has gotten involved and is calling for action before disease spreads. "Defecating and urinating in the street is not something that's healthy for individuals," said Richard Taki, public health protection officer for the authority. "A number of diseases are passed through the fecal-oral route. If people are tracking this bacteria into eating establishments and public facilities we're running the risk of a problem with rodents and insects carrying bacteria. Salmonella is the obvious threat and for a lot of the homeless people who are imunocompromised, food poisoning is going to be serious."

So, of course, the next stage of band-aid application is a push for time-limited, self-cleaning public toilets.

Kim Kerr, general manager of the Downtown Eastside Resident's Association, said he is disgusted with the plan.

"This is a ghetto where people are turned out to rot, we're talking about adults with the mental capabilities of 10-year-olds who are addicted to drugs. They have no home, they have no toilet. What do you expect," Kerr said.

"We are worrying about the mess of piss in the street while homeless people are dying. Let's spend the money on toilets on houses. We treat human beings in this city with less concern than we show animals."

I'll be damned. More than a year ago, here, I predicted that Vancouver's ill-advised "safe-injection site" government-sponsored shooting parlor for addicts would heighten expectations for government-funded housing for addicts.

Two problems with that, at least. One, land is scarce and expensive, even in a quasi-socialist city-state such as Vancouver. Two, Kerr's comment gives short-shrift to personal responsibility. Addicts can kick the habit. It happens quite often. And a huge social services network already exists in Vancouver, for the Downtown Eastside's addicts and vagrants.

The touted network of government-funded social services - the counselling, job training, health care, and alcohol and drug treatment services - isn't being utilized enough by prospective "clients" for the intended purpose: getting a hand up, back to stability, employability, self-sufficiency, and paid-for housing. They are more interested in skating by, day-to-day, and maintaining their chosen lifestyle of indigence. They are gaming the system, and ultimately, those who fund it.

In one respect at least, I agree with Kerr. Public toilets are a poor response. The piles of crap in Vancouver actually serve a useful function, reminding observant analysts of what the modern-day social-services bureaucracy amounts to, when all is said and done.

For further reference, read, "How to Increase Your City's Homeless Population," by Lloyd Billingsley.

Vancouver story tip from Rosenblog reader David Jackson.

UPDATE: Reader "Humboldt Hippie" comments: "In Arcata we're facing proposed "Harmony Patrols" to make us like defecators more, and a "Dignity Village" free campground. Combined with free food and showers without casework and an endless supply of college students to fuel panhandlers, we just have one thing to say. Hey Ya'll, come on down to Arcata. The living is good."

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at June 9, 2005 04:37 PM

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