While out west, I noticed that some businesses in California and Arizona had bathroom doors which were kept locked. This is something that I haven’t seen in Kentucky so I found it odd when Kemal and I went into a business establishment while in San Francisco to purchase beverages and found the bathrooms locked when we went to use them. The door had a keypad entry lock, so we went to the counter and asked the cashier about getting access to the bathroom.
After giving us the code, we inquired why they keep the restrooms locked. The clerk said they want to keep homeless people out because they mess up the bathrooms. I couldn’t believe they could be so heartless! Homeless people have it hard enough being without shelter, let alone without a place to relieve themselves.
Kentucky’s not like this…at least the parts of Kentucky that I lived in and visited. There aren’t locks on bathroom doors to prevent certain people from using them. There are some places with signs that say “No public restrooms,” but there have been times I had to go so bad that I asked to use their restroom despite posted “no public restrooms” signs. I’ve never been turned away yet.
When I worked as a resident manager at a center for homeless women, I learned first-hand just what difficult lives these women had and also how some people pre-judge them because they happen to be homeless. Some folks say that homeless people should just get jobs, but ironically, most of the women who were living temporarily in the homeless center I worked at were working.
Despite their employment, some of the women I met were living so far below the poverty level that they simply couldn’t afford deposits on apartments and deposits to get their electricity turned on. Some of them simply didn’t have enough money every month to be able to afford to pay for rent and electricity because they were earning such meager wages. Others had poor credit and couldn’t secure an apartment to lease because their credit references and credit history weren’t good. With long waiting lists for subsidized housing they can afford, they end up having no where to turn if they don’t have friends and/or family who will take them in.
Homeless people come from all walks of life, and while there are many homeless people who are holding down jobs, some of them are unemployed and/or disabled. Some are dealing with addictions while others are coping with mental illness. Some are victims of domestic violence while others are victims of job “downsizing” that can come about as a result of a depressed economy.
Many homeless people are children. The agency I worked for also had a shelter for homeless families, and like the women’s shelter I worked at, they always had a long waiting list so many people, many of whom included children, were on the streets without shelter, without running water, and without access to bathroom facilities to relieve themselves and to clean themselves. They survive by using whatever restrooms they can find to wash up and relieve themselves, and they can use these same restrooms to at least get fresh water to drink.
The homeless people who are unemployed aren’t going to have much of a chance to get a job if they don’t have a way to clean up. Who will hire them if they go into a job interview (if they’re fortunate enough to get one) not looking/smelling clean and fresh? How can they even get cleaned up enough to have a chance at a job if all the area businesses lock their bathrooms and only give access to persons who’ve made a purchase? It’s a vicious cycle.
Certain members of society snub their noses on homeless people, assuming they’re homeless because they’re too lazy to work. But hard-working people can and do become homeless. If they’re unemployed and looking for a job, how can they have a fighting chance to re-enter the workforce if they don’t even have bathrooms to relieve themselves and if they don’t have access to soap and water to clean themselves?
It’s just so tragic that so many men, women, and children are without shelter, and when I realized that there are businesses that lock their bathroom doors to keep out homeless people, I was both saddened and disappointed. Life can be terribly hard for people who don’t have a roof over their heads and place to call home, and when they don’t have bathroom facilities, it makes their lives even more difficult. It’s a tragic situation.
