Toilet Privilege
The Power in a Shower Program is a groundbreaking service for homeless people. The shower service offers shower access through a shower truck to homeless people in New Haven. The shower truck goes to three locations: Fair Haven, Dixwell Ave Varick Church, and the New Haven Green. I was able to be a part of the evaluation of the shower service, and it has been an invaluable experience for me. The SHAWN research team spent approximately 3 weeks doing surveys with most of the participants who utilize the shower service. Participants were given a small thank gift after they completed the survey, the gift included toilet paper, socks, and a granola bar. Key participants were then able to do a 30-minute in-depth interview where they would then be provided a $20 compensation fee.
Although, the survey was focused on discovering what people’s experience was with the shower service. What impacted me the most was learning about unhoused people’s toilet access or, well, lack thereof. I have seen and interacted with a significant number of unhoused people in my lifetime, however, awareness of homeless people’s lack of toilet access was something I was ignorant of and never gave a second thought to. Learning personal stories of homeless people’s lack of toilet access demonstrated another gap unhoused people face. It is interesting to see the shower service bridge one gap of lack of access to shower, whilst exposing another gap with the lack of access to toilets. It is dehumanizing to go without access to a shower, people need to shower every day. However, people need to use the toilet several times a day. There are not many options available to unhoused people for toilet access in New Haven. Homeless people can use City Hall, the library, and the train station but those places close at a certain time. Very few people who were interviewed said they could use the bathroom of a friend’s or family member. Businesses will only allow people to use the bathroom if they pay for something, and many businesses do not allow customers to use their bathrooms at all. Portable toilets exist but they are not very clean. Homeless people deserve access to toilet services that are clean and open 24/7 and 7 days a week.
This developmental project informs my work at SHAWN by teaching me interviewing skills, community collaboration, community engagement and data management skills. I have also learned how to engage with a vulnerable population which is a vital skill, as I will be engaging with another vulnerable population when I do interviews in the SHAWN project. Learning data collection skills through inputting data in excel, and word is also an important skill I will need as we conduct data collection in the SHAWN project. The most important skill of all though is learning how to be approachable and how to build rapport with an individual in a short period of time.