Almost everybody in Berkeley agrees that the City's street dwellers should not be allowed to defecate or urinate on the sidewalks. The City Council won't take action against this practice until there are enough public toilets meet the need.

        This should be a very easy problem to solve. There are already many portable toilets around the UC stadium. Surely, the University would allow street dwellers to use some of these. The City could install others in People's Park and on public or leased property near downtown.

      Portable toilets are not expensive to rent; the supplier would service them; they can easily be moved, and there are many suppliers who could deliver and install them on a couple of day's notice.

Of course anybody would be free to use these toilets, but those who have access to better toilets probably wouldn't.

This proposal addresses one of the City Council’s reservations about the Street Behavior ordinance – that it would be difficult to enforce in the absence of toilet facilities that are accessible to street dwellers. It also stands on its own as a workable solution to a serious public health and quality of life problem.

The proposal does raise a question of moral hazard; the more Berkeley acts to accommodate street dwellers, the more street dwellers will be attracted here. This concern must be weighed against the public health and quality of life consequences of not having enough public toilets downtown. If adopted, the proposal would make the Council more willing to regulate the behavior of street dwellers, thus making the City less of a magnet to them.

   This would be a stopgap measure. Permanent public toilets could come later. The City needs some, especially if it wants to realize its dream of becoming a world-class convention city.

   At least two commentators have asked if “Street Dwellers” is a new Politically Correct term.  It was not so intended.   It was intended to be neutral and descriptive.  “The Homeless” is the PC term.  It suggests that the people in question are victims and thus entitled to demand relief from local governments.  It also suggests that if they were provided with homes, their problems would be solved.   “Street People”, evoking as it does images of carefree hippies, does not describe the people we’re talking about.  Other terms in general use are pejorative and therefore not neutral.