City opts for ‘hygiene hub,’ nixes downtown loo

Brandon City Council has decided to cancel plans to build a 24-7 downtown washroom this year and opted instead to create a longer-term solution with more services.

Council unanimously agreed Tuesday to set up a “hygiene hub” instead of the previously approved Eighth Street washroom.

The new setup, which could take several years to create, would have multiple washrooms, showers and laundry services, a city staff member said.

In the meantime, the city will increase hours at a public washroom at Princess Park to keep it open 24-7.

“There’s a need to be able to have showers, there’s a need to be able to have laundry services and there’s a need to have a guaranteed warming shelter overnight,” Brandon’s general manager of operations, Todd Burton, said on Wednesday.

Council earlier this year had voted to open a new downtown 24-7 washroom, but administration gave an update to council on Tuesday after hearing more information from other communities and vendors.

“This is a bigger need which also incorporates the washroom,” Burton said.

The hygiene hub, which will be located somewhere downtown, will provide a safe, accessible and dignified access to hygiene services for people who are unhoused, Burton said.

He said those services are currently limited in Brandon.

“We’re kind of looking at potentially something like six showers, four washrooms and three washer-dryers,” Burton said.

The $445,000 cost for the single washroom was a “hard ask” on the city’s side, he said, even if it was supposed to be self-cleaning and have sensors go off if someone was inside for too long. The building would have also had a yearly operating cost of $76,000, a council report shows.

Diverting that funding for the larger project makes more sense, he said.

Burton estimated the cost of setting up the “hygiene hub” at $1.5 million, with an annual operating cost of around $2 million. The city wouldn’t take up the entire cost, he added.

“We definitely will not do this on our own. We are definitely looking for our senior levels of government to partner on this, to address this need in Brandon, so that’s why … it’s not something that we could get in place for this year.”

Coun. Kris Desjarlais, whose Ward 2 covers the city’s downtown, said seeing something more substantial than the standalone washroom is a good thing.

“If that means holding off on building something long term while waiting for other things to fall in place, then it behooves us, I think, to take this opportunity,” Desjarlais told the Sun after the meeting.

“Because that infrastructure that we’ve set aside for that washroom could go into that facility.”

In extending the operating hours of the Princess Park washrooms, the city will hire a security firm to station a guard near the facility overnight. The city will also increase the number of times the washroom is cleaned from four to six times a day.

The city plans to start having the washroom open 24-7 “within the month,” depending on when security and cleaning staff will be available.

Currently, only one Princess Park washroom is open at a time, while the other one next to it is closed. The washroom in use alternates when one becomes inoperable.

Burton said there have been “limited” instances of a full closure of the washrooms.

He said vandalism is common at the facility, as well as clogged toilets, discarded needles and the occasional broken appliance.

“People are kind of semi-trying to live in there. We’ve even found things like toasters and that in there. So that’s why we got to keep checking on it,” he said.

The possibility of upgrading the facility with toilets and appliances that can’t be broken had previously been presented to council. The cost to do that would have been too high, council decided, as larger piping would have needed to be installed.

Currently, a security service unlocks the washroom every morning and locks it back up in the evening.

The city’s plan is for the Princess Park washroom to be open 24-7 until the winter. It will then only be kept open during the day as Life’s Journey Inc. operates a block away and would have washrooms open overnight.

Burton said if Life’s Journey doesn’t get the necessary funding to be open 24-7 for the winter, then the Princess Park washroom would continue to stay open overnight during the colder months.

The plan to close the washroom overnight while Life’s Journey is open was made to save the city money, he said.

A message left for a Life’s Journey representative on Wednesday wasn’t returned by press time.

Desjarlais said he was glad council decided to keep going with 24-7 washrooms, even if there’s a possibility Life’s Journey won’t be able to operate next winter.

He added that he’s optimistic that the short-term fix will get Brandon through the waiting period for the larger centre.

During the meeting, Desjarlais also urged the next council not to walk back the decision made on Tuesday.

“I hope that the next council iteration keeps the motivation and the momentum going on 24-7 access to a public washroom facility in the downtown,” said Desjarlais, who previously announced he wouldn’t seek another term in the coming October election.

“Sometimes putting funding together can take a while, we know that. So, this is a great idea to have this hygiene hub, (which) could be five, seven years down the road.”

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said after the meeting that collaborating with local service providers for long-term outcomes is better than just the single washroom, even if the city will wait a bit longer.

“It is something we needed to address. This is probably what you would consider a Band-Aid,” he said of the short-term solution. “But we’re very fortunate with the organizations that work in the community that have the best interest of people in mind, and how to try to make people as safe as possible and supply the most help as possible.”

He said he has spoken with provincial cabinet ministers about the topic and funding in passing, but nothing official has been sent to the province.

A spokesperson for Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said until the city submits a formal funding proposal, the province cannot comment.

“We’re always happy to work with our municipal partners, and we look forward to them submitting their funding proposal,” Ben Leahy said.

The former Transit Information Centre building at 21 Eighth St. — where the single washroom was supposed to go — will be demolished as planned.

The city said demolishing it makes more sense than leaving another vacant building up.

Burton said the site could potentially be turned into a bus shelter, though no plans are currently in the works.

» alambert@brandonsun.com