HUMBOLDT PARK — A handful of public bathrooms are being installed in Chicago — more than two years after alderpeople announced plans for a pilot program to make bathrooms more accessible.
The city struck a deal with JCDecaux to install four high-quality public bathrooms, Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) announced last week. The bathrooms are “ready for installation,” and locations are being finalized, the alderman said.
The city will pick the locations based on central and highly traveled neighborhood corridor areas, officials said.
“We have never been closer to having a public bathroom pilot in Chicago,” La Spata said in a newsletter to neighbors. “I’m excited to see the city work with such an experienced operator and hopeful that we can determine appropriate locations in the very near term. It’s a great opportunity to bring new services to our residents.”
The program could bring more restrooms to the city depending on the success of the first four, La Spata said.
La Spata told Block Club more details will be released soon, including timelines for when the bathrooms will be installed.
The program is a big win for La Spata and Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd), who have been pushing since 2021 for accessible public bathrooms to benefit everyone from transit workers to people experiencing homelessness.
A 2021 Tribune investigation found fewer than 500 structures in the city “contain free public restrooms with few or no barriers to entry, such as security checkpoints or client-only access.”
The program will increase access to public bathrooms — which are the norm for major European cities — and will follow in the steps of other American cities.
La Spata previously said the pilot program could possibly be paid for with money from the Chicago Recovery Plan, which is partially funded by federal COVID-19 relief dollars. He has also said there could be a possible private-public partnership that would seek grants and other funding.
JCDecaux, a France-based company, was chosen as a partner after the city shopped around for potential collaborators. JCDecaux has designed and operated fully accessible self-cleaning public toilets for 40 years, according to the company’s website. The company has 2,500 toilets in 28 countries, with Paris being the world’s largest network of automatic toilets, according to a 2022 company release.
JCDecaux also manages and owns Chicago’s bus shelters, and it is a leading company in street furniture and airport advertisement worldwide.
Spokespeople for JCDecaux and the Mayor’s Office did not reply to requests for comment.
‘We Need More Public Bathrooms’
Business owners, neighbors, city officials and transit operators have supported having more public bathrooms.
“This is a basic human need. It’s something that everybody needs. Yes, we have people that have a higher need because people are unhoused, or because people have particular conditions,” Rodriguez-Sanchez said in 2022. “But this is something that benefits everybody, that makes our public spaces more humane, and something that I think that we need to adopt.”
At a meeting in 2022 about the proposal, former Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) agreed there’s a serious need for more public restrooms around the city, particularly for public transit drivers and employees.
“I’ve had conversations with CTA employees who have a particular problem when they’re on their bus lines, not having access to adequate facilities,” Sawyer previously said. “And I’ll be honest with you, particularly women bus drivers … not having access. So I think this is something that we should be looking at.”
The need will also help people experiencing homelessness, some of whom have used alleys or parks as bathrooms.
Victor, who has lived in the Humboldt Park tent encampment for over a year, is one of many neighbors who would benefit from a public bathroom near the park, he said. Neighbors in and around the park have pushed city officials to reopen one of the park’s public bathrooms since last year. It has been closed for many years and is next to a cluster of tents.
Neighbors in Wicker Park have similarly complained about insufficient access to the namesake park’s bathroom, particularly on weekends.
“We need more public bathrooms; they said they were going to reopen that [public bathroom],” said Victor, referring to the park’s bathroom building, which is in serious need of repair.
A Park District spokesperson said the park bathrooms are being redesigned, and construction is expected to begin this year.
In the interim, city officials have added porta-potties to the area.
Far Northwest Side neighbors and state representatives have also called for public restrooms near CTA stations since 2020, particularly the Jefferson Park terminal, where homeless people have stayed and sometimes defecate nearby, making the area dirtier and adding more work for transit employees.
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