How Sacramento Rolled Out a Mobile Restroom for the Homeless ​​​​​​​

There’s a forlorn industrial area of Sacramento north of downtown dubbed the River District. It’s been marked for revitalization, but in the meantime it’s still largely filled with dusty streets and desolate warehouses. According to the city council member Jeff Harris, who represents the district, it’s also the area where you can find around half of the city’s homeless population. “At any given moment, there are around 500 homeless [people] there,” he says. The industrial nature of the neighborhood also means that there are no public buildings—and no public buildings means no public restrooms.

The combination of a significant homeless population and a lack of bathroom facilities available for their use has meant a large amount of waste on the River District’s streets. Human feces and used needles are routine sights. Lisa Culp, executive director of Women’s Empowerment, an organization in the district that helps homeless women get jobs and housing, told City Council that her staff would spend the first hour of every day cleaning excrement, needles, and toilet paper from the area around their building.