Citing public drug usage, Spokane Transit Authority restricts access to plaza bathrooms

For more than a month now, access to the bathrooms at the Spokane Transit Authority plaza has been significantly limited during a controversial pilot program agency officials say is meant to combat drug use.

The doorless first-floor bathrooms have been blocked off, with a sign directing people to the second floor. The handful of upstairs bathrooms, which are built to serve a sizable number of patrons, have been mostly reduced to one person at a time – or slightly more, a transit officer said, if one of his colleagues stands watch inside the bathroom.

A security guard sits outside, waving for people in line to enter and checking the bathrooms once emptied.

The pilot program started March 6 and will continue for an undetermined amount of time, likely months. The decision was prompted by increased complaints about drug use, second-hand exposure and medical calls for possible overdoses, said agency spokeswoman Carly Cortright.

In the six months leading up to the restrictions, there were 335 informal complaints about drug usage and 22 medical calls for unresponsive people inside the bathrooms, Cortright said.

The bathrooms also had to be closed 31 times in the month prior for cleanup, including for drug paraphernalia or vandalism. Cleaning up can require hazmat gear, Cortright noted, if there is blood left from intravenous usage or aerosolized narcotics in the air from smoking.

In the 30 days since the pilot started, however, the restricted bathrooms have been closed 12 times, though Cortright said these happened mostly at the beginning of the pilot program before people seemingly got used to the upped security.

Restricting bathroom use has also cut down on costs, she added, due to fewer vandalism cases and reduced cleaning expenses. It has also reduced police and medical calls, a cost borne not by STA, but by taxpayers, Cortright added.

The second-floor bathrooms were chosen because they have front doors, unlike the first-floor facilities with an open doorway, Cortright noted. The agency wants to eventually factor in the first-floor restrooms into the pilot program.

The restrictions have frustrated some patrons, a number of whom have made their thoughts known at recent City Council meetings.

Rick Bocook, a frequent city hall speaker whose chalk art often greets council meeting attendees as they walk in, questioned whether it was appropriate to restrict access to all guests in order to eliminate drug usage.

“A senior citizen, or somebody with a disability, somebody who’s diabetic, a woman that’s pregnant … they have to wait in line, because (STA is) getting rid of the drug addicts,” Bocook said. “That’s their solution.”

STA’s solution, he added, seemed to simply be to move the problem somewhere else.

Homelessness advocate Dave Bilsland warned council members that the city could be taking on legal liability if someone has an accident while waiting in line.

“The first time somebody has an accident in that line, they will be able to sue STA,” he said. “Are you going to wait for somebody to pee their pants and sue before you fix this?”

Cortright noted that a family restroom is available on the second floor if anyone has an emergency or a medical condition, which can be accessed based on the discretion of the security guard. She also argued that wait times were typically minimal.

“I will say, we’ve had some negative feedback on social as well, but in person, people have said they’ve appreciated it,” she added.

Ten minutes in the plaza

Late in the afternoon on Tuesday, well after the last straggling high schoolers have gotten home but before the after-work rush hour, it took about ten minutes for a man in line to enter the restrooms.

In that 10-minute stretch, an older woman using a walker walked up to two nearby workers for a janitorial service that STA contracts with, asking them how to access the restroom. The workers walked her to the empty women’s line, then watched as she wandered down the wrong hallway. After a minute, she left the second floor without using the restroom.

As a man in line held up his well-used copy of Charlotte’s Web, another man, unknown to the first, approached and began to threaten him. The security guard overseeing the line had entered a bathroom for less than two minutes, and the two janitorial workers had turned to look down into the plaza before the confrontation started.

When the janitorial workers, equipped with walkie talkies, were asked why they weren’t responding to the situation or requesting security, they first said they were just janitors, then said that there was no assault currently taking place. The man making threats walked away during this conversation.

When a third janitorial worker walked up and asked what was going on, one responded that they had received a complaint, not about the threat, but about the length of the line.

“This is what happens,” said the man holding the peeling copy of Charlotte’s Web, who declined to provide his name. He added that he is often confronted by strangers at the plaza, and that staff have not assisted with those or other concerns.

Reached for comment, Cortright said security is not supposed to leave the line unattended for more than 30 seconds at a time, and although the agency contracts out for its janitorial services, it expects a high level of customer service from its contractors.

“We are going to be investigating this incident, as the safety of our patrons is our top priority,” she said.

Alternatives

The Spokane Transit Authority considered a number of alternatives before deciding to restrict access to the bathrooms.

At the April 10 City Council meeting, Bilsland suggested the agency should try adding blue lights to the bathroom, a technological attempt to reduce injected drug usage by making it more difficult to see veins.

That option had been considered, but quickly eliminated, Cortright said. Most of the complaints of drug use have been for smoked narcotics, not injected ones. Even for injected drugs, the strategy’s effectiveness is questionable, she added.

“Other organizations have quit using them because it led to patrons using in public,” Cortright said.

The agency also considered increasing staffing levels and checking bathrooms more frequently.

“That’s a level of invasion of privacy that wouldn’t be fair to our regular patrons,” she said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on April 21, 2023, to correct the time period prior to the pilot program during which the bathrooms were closed 31 times for cleaning.