'Everybody deserves their dignity': 2 Downtown Eastside washrooms at risk of losing funding
CTV
Two washrooms in the neighbourhood – one located at Pigeon Park and the other at 144 East Hastings St. – risk closing due to their funding running out in less than two weeks.
Melanie Pratt has worked as a bathroom attendant in the heart of the Downtown Eastside for four and a half years. She ensures the public washroom at Pigeon Park remains clean, and also provides life-saving care in the event of a toxic drug overdose.
“Everybody deserves their dignity,” she said. “The bathrooms are part of it, but what it comes down to is someone’s life is much more important.”
Pratt would like to continue her work, but two washrooms in the neighbourhood – one located at Pigeon Park and the other at 144 East Hastings St. – risk closing due to their funding running out in less than two weeks.
“Somebody asked me the other day – what’s your biggest fear of losing this contract?,” she said. “The people not getting what they need.”
Pratt said hundreds of people use the facilities in a neighbourhood where public washrooms are few and far between. According to a City of Vancouver staff report published in October 2023, there are more than a dozen public washrooms within the Downtown Eastside. However, the report states, “the number of public washrooms has not kept pace with growing housed and unhoused populations.”
Artist Jamie Hardy, also known as Smokey Devil, said there’s a lack of washrooms for community members.
“It’s a basic service for people that’s needed,” he said. “There’s nowhere else for people to go.”
