Reflections on the Work of Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak (1943-2023)

Imagine this… You’re six years old. Happy, healthy, active and curious about everything around you. Everyday, a woman comes to your house to clean the toilet. Your grandmother has told you not to touch her. You notice that when this woman leaves, your grandmother sprinkles the pure water of the Ganges river where the woman…

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NYC Restrooms 4 All takes up the challenge

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November 4, 2019 We celebrate the launch of partner organization NYC Restrooms 4 All with a post by co-founder and Roosevelt Institute Fellow, Maeve Flaherty. If you’ve spent any time in New York City, you’ve had that sinking sensation– a desperate need to go to the bathroom, and no place to go. You look around…

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Do Americans enjoy the Human Right to Water and Sanitation?

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January 23, 2019 In a recent segment on NPR affiliate KLCC, Oregon journalist Denise Silfee points out that the UN General Assembly affirmed the human right to water and sanitation in 2010 while the United States failed to join the majority of nations voting for the resolution. In her interview with people sheltering in a…

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Transit’s missing link: The public toilet

This case study illustrates how the lack of a public restroom on a key route can render transit unusable for many riders and what community members can do to fight back. When it opened in late 2016, riders changing buses at an expensive new transit center in Washington State were dismayed to find they had…

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Hepatitis A and California’s lack of public toilets

The reluctance of Southern California’s local governments to provide public restrooms has resulted in a public health crisis.  (For updates, see comments at end) San Diego County reports Hepatitis A is the cause of death of 16 people, 14 of which were unhoused citizens living in the city’s East Village. Today 444 San Diegans are…

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Social inclusion, toilet rights, and legal protection for transgender Americans

Public toilets have long been at the forefront of human rights advocacy in the United States. During the past year, the transgender community and parents of young children who identify with a gender other than their birth sex have successfully advocated for laws requiring gender-neutral toilet rooms to ensure greater privacy. This expansion of the…

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Global Homeless Day: Toilet Solutions from France for the USA

“The restroom thus becomes a tool for figuring out just how a society functions – what it values, how it separates people from one another, and the kinds of trade-offs that come to be made,” says sociologist Harvey Moltoch. While we at PHLUSH believe in safe and accessible toilets for all people (families, children, those…

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Staying human through hygiene while houseless

Living houseless in an urban environment requires personal savvy and logistic skill. Days are often an endless series of searches, lines, and waits: finding the next meal, a safe place to sleep, a public restroom. Here at PHLUSH, we see toilet availability as a human right and advocate for building urban public restrooms that serve…

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Stories from the Street: PSU team explores toiletlessness

July 1, 2013 Students from Portland State University’s Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Affairs and Planning, have recently completed a project on the consequences of toiletlessness. After spending the winter academic term on background and planning, the Right to Relief team spent the spring term exploring the issues in collaboration with PHLUSH.  They hit…

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