SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Michael McConnell a homeless advocate, is testing the locked doors in downtown San Diego's Faultline Park.
The patch of green sandwiched between towering apartment complexes is a crossroads for many people, including many who are experiencing homelessness.
But the public restrooms in the city park are locked, with signs saying if you’d like to use the bathroom to contact a park manager or restroom attendant, where you can find that person is anyone’s guess.
"Perfectly good public bathrooms that we looked at that are locked and can't be used," said McConnel. "Yet we have these crisis on our streets over and over."
Sanitation and hand washing are key components for stopping transmittable diseases.
In 2017, the County reported nearly 600 cases and 20 deaths linked to Hepatitis A- mostly among the homeless population. Today, the county is responding to a different outbreak on the streets like, shigellosis, a bacterial disease that effects the GI system.
"The most common symptoms of the disease are bloody diarrhea, fevers and just overall not not feeling well," said Dr. Jeffery Norris of Father Joe's Villages. "Most of it does relate to to hygiene. This is a disease that's passed by person to person contact, hand to hand contact, sharing of food or paraphernalia that are contaminated with with feces."
Dr. Norris says in most cases, shigellosis aren’t fatal and there are far fewer cases than we saw during the Hepatitis A outbreak.
Still in order to combat the disease, the city and county announced in a press release this morning that they will be taking steps to stop the spread of shigellosis by sanitizing sidewalks and rolling out handwashing stations.
Moves which McConnell applauds, but says the proof will be in permanent action the county takes to create a more hygienic environment for the city’s homeless.
"This is not rocket science," said McConnell. "Providing public restrooms is not rocket science. It is good public health policy."
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