Quick Take
Portable toilets miles away aren’t enough to solve the loss of public bathrooms and showers on Coral Street in Santa Cruz, the Lookout Editorial Board writes. Our local leaders actively took on public health issues when they confronted COVID-19. Now, they must end the slow and bureaucratic response to the Coral Street crisis before we have a public health emergency.
Editor’s note: A Lookout View is the opinion of our Community Voices opinion section, written by Community Voices Editor Jody K. Biehl and Lookout founder Ken Doctor. Our goal is to connect the dots we see in the news and offer a bigger-picture view — all intended to see Santa Cruz County meet the challenges of the day and to shine a light on issues we believe must be on the public agenda. These views are distinct and independent from the work of our newsroom and its reporting.
There is something profoundly wrong happening on Coral Street in Santa Cruz.
Coral Street has been a city problem for years. But the unsanitary conditions have worsened since April 1, when nonprofit Housing Matters stopped offering day services, including public toilets and showers used by 50 to 100 (possibly more) unhoused people regularly.
When bathrooms disappear, people still need bathrooms.
Residents and service providers who work around Coral Street and the Tannery describe increasing odors of urine and feces. Every Thursday, city sanitation crews and police officers now move through the area to clean up conditions that everyone knew would follow the loss of basic facilities.
Staff at the Homeless Persons Health Project, which operates a clinic near Coral Street, have warned that the consequences extend far beyond inconvenience. Lack of sanitation drives infections, worsens chronic conditions and increases the risk of communicable disease. One case of giardia has already surfaced. If a more contagious gastrointestinal illness like shigella spreads through the unhoused population, it will not stay contained there.
Public health is exactly that: public.
To be fair, the City of Santa Cruz did respond, although many city leaders point out that providing services is a county responsibility. The city installed four portable restrooms and handwashing stations at three locations: two at Depot Park, one at the downtown library and one at parking Lot 32 in Midtown on Soquel Avenue.
The efforts deserve recognition. But they do not solve the problem.
The people most affected by the closure remain concentrated around Coral Street, while the replacement facilities sit 1 to 4 miles away.
A mile or two might not sound like much to people who have transportation, stability or housing. But if you have to carry everything you own, are dealing with illness or disability or addiction or simply trying to survive day to day, it is a great distance. “It might as well be in San Francisco,” one service provider told Lookout.
People do not walk miles every time they need a bathroom. The question is not whether toilets exist somewhere in Santa Cruz. The question is whether they exist where people actually need them.
Right now, they do not.
And there are still no showers.
City and county officials insist they are “working on it” and have identified possible locations on the outskirts of downtown. Again, we applaud these efforts. We just believe they should have happened faster.
The contrast to the COVID-19 response is hard to miss. During the pandemic, local governments moved quickly to install handwashing stations and sanitation facilities on Coral Street because they understood that disease prevention protects everyone. Today, many of those same agencies are tolerating the disappearance of sanitation infrastructure without a comparable sense of urgency.
County Public Health Officer Lisa Hernandez has told us she is not part of these ongoing discussions. Why not? Where is the Health Services Agency? Where is the county’s health equity officer? Where are the elected officials who routinely speak about dignity, compassion and public health when discussing homelessness?
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors has acknowledged the problem. Its primary response has been that it cannot dictate Housing Matters’ decisions.
That is true.
But county leaders can still act. They can identify locations. They can put real funding on the table, despite a budget deficit. They can work with the city instead of waiting for a solution to materialize. Some of that collaboration happens in monthly meetings, but the public does not see results. And the whole process is just too slow.
The public deserves to know what is happening and how much it would cost to provide permanent restroom and shower facilities.
Yes, Housing Matters’ decision, announced in October 2025, came as a surprise to many. Its reasoning makes sense: As it shifts its focus toward permanent supportive housing, it no longer wants to serve those working to change their lives and those still living on the streets. But could it not have participated in a better workaround?
The City of Santa Cruz spends roughly $11 million annually on homelessness-related programs and services. Can it direct some of that to bathrooms?
Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker told Lookout that the portable toilets and handwashing units cost about $8,000 per month to operate ($96,000 per year), funded through the city’s general fund, while city officials pursue a longer-term solution. Mayor Fred Keeley said he is open to adding toilets and showers to the budget, but that other services would need to be cut.
That is a good start – and the public should be aware of those trade-offs.
Let’s be clear: The problem does not affect only unhoused people.
Businesses, residents, healthcare providers, sanitation workers — everyone who shares public space absorbs the impact when basic sanitation disappears.
Community groups have stepped up to help. Temple Beth El and the Belonging Collaborative have raised $2,000 for hygiene support. Service providers are trying to organize mobile showers.
Their efforts matter.
But access to bathrooms and showers should not depend on community volunteers.
It is a fundamental public health responsibility.
The city believes it responded. Technically, it has. But if people still cannot realistically reach the replacement facilities, then the problem has not been solved.
Mail services, another offering Housing Matters ended on April 1, also remain largely unreplaced. The county’s Human Services Department has started holding government-related mail for one year, as it is required to do by law. But beyond that, people without housing cannot get mail unless they can afford a post office box.
That makes something as basic as maintaining a mailing address a privilege — a dividing line between people who can stay connected to jobs, benefits and services and those who cannot.
Bathrooms. Showers. A mailing address.
None of these are complicated services. Yet almost three months after Housing Matters ended them, local officials still do not have adequate replacements in place.
The city and county can continue debating responsibility. Or they can recognize what should be obvious: When basic services disappear, the consequences do not stay confined to Coral Street.
The public deserves a clear plan, a timeline and a commitment to move faster. Local leaders knew this problem was coming. Now they need to solve it.
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