HomeMy WebLinkAbout101723 Comment on Healthier Together PlanALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Public Showers at the Healthier Together facility
10-16-2023
The City seems to agree that Public Showers are a needed amenity in our city. Right now there are no designated Public Showers anywhere in Jefferson County. For the past year, the YMCA
has provided “tokens” for the homeless to shower at the pool, but they, and everyone, needs to show ID and go through a background check before they can use those showers because they
are only available when the Y is open and children may be present. Hopefully we can do better.
In the plans that were shown at the open houses there is a large lobby with a space marked off for “parties” that is across the hall from the pool and changing rooms. I believe a much
better use for this space would be truly public showers available to anyone in our town, or passing through our town, whether they have ID or can pass a background check. These would
be single rooms with a shower, toilet, sink, electric outlet, bench, hook, etc. almost like you have at home. A small space where passing visitors, as well as our unsheltered, could
take care of their personal hygiene in a safe, private space. These rooms would be large enough to accommodate a parent or a caregiver. There could be between 3 and 6 of these, and
usable with a key code or some such security device, maybe for a reasonable fee for those who could afford such, to cover the cost of maintenance and hot water.
The Mountain View Campus has become a social safety net hub with the food bank, police station, clothing exchange, and the Y. This is the perfect location for public showers. It is across
from the Recovery Cafe, near the transit center, on the bus route, and a central location for our community. Caswell Brown will continue to be for people with ID and background checks
since the current facility and future plans include families with children. There are no plans to have showers available to everyone.
Finally out of curiosity I googled public showers in Sequim and Port Angeles, and both came up with responses. Sequim even has a laundromat with showers! So this is not a radical idea.
Please increase equity in Port Townsend with truly public showers for all. Thank you.
Julia Cochrane
willowtree@olypen.com
PO Box 1654
Port Townsend, WA 98368
(360) 821-1926 cell
https://www.jeffersoninterfaithaction.org/wwc
Territories of the nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm̕ (Klallam), & t͡ʃə́mqəm (Chemakum) peoples
“ In order for the oppressed to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting
situation which they can transform.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed