The Issues

      As we all know, with the good comes the bad. NYC does fail in many places to support its residence. Those areas are mental health, housing, inter-borough transportation, and many more. We are focusing on the limited facilities available to the community which provide public bathrooms, showers, and areas to shave. Those that are offered are not opened year round, nor at night, and are not well publicized. 
      The unsheltered are told to do better, do more, do for yourself, get a job. Not much empathy is given with these remarks. More needs to be done to help the unsheltered. If they want to go to a job interview, build relationships, and socialize in this exterior judgmental city, then they need a reliable place where they can shower and shave.

      Jim Rohn says it best, I know we want people to not judge us by our looks, but they do. Finding a place to relieve yourself is also difficult. Imagine you’re homeless, every day you have spent your time and mental resources to find a place to relieve yourself 3 times a day or more. Even harder to find a shower. If you do find one or all of these resources, usually your mobility is limited and you are tethered to the facility you found. Most likely this facility will be located in a low income area. NIMBY is a strong movement, which has already stonewalled NYC permanent toilet  project.

      In August 2023, there were 86,510 homeless people, including 29,721 homeless children, sleeping each night in New York City’s main municipal shelter system. A total of 23,912 single adults slept in shelters each night in August 2023. That doesn't account for those who don't sleep in the shelters.

• Private facilities, not required to give access

• 1 public bathroom per 7000 residents

  • Scattered and difficult to find

• Many have started different toilet and shower programs, almost all have died out. 

  • Got2gonyc and Clearpath. Overwhelming and nonspecific data and non public retail facilities on maps. 

• No more than 5 Shower facilities scattered across all of NYC. Most open 3/4 of the year.

• Laundry facilities are not well known and scarce.

No one should carry these burdens, especially while you are dealing with being unsheltered, being sick, mental health issues, poverty, and more.