Are downtown bathrooms the way to help businesses, homeless population?

The homeless population downtown is not going to go away, one alderman said, after hearing from a businesswoman this week.

Gina Sabbatini spoke to the Board of Aldermen about having to wash human feces off a sidewalk near her store recently and the implications that involved. She said someone had already stepped in it barefoot and tracked it down the sidewalk by the time she began hauling bleach water in buckets from her store to wash the walkway off.

She told aldermen she just wasn’t equipped to handle that, but felt compelled to deal with it before downtown visitors began arriving. She also talked about dealing with people who she said seem to have a mental disorder coming into her store and making her customers uneasy by refusing to leave or cooperate.

She warned aldermen the city was at risk of losing people who have a bad or uncomfortable shopping experience.

“The problem is getting bigger,” said Alderman Chic Cody, who regularly involves himself with downtown businesses because he helps organize festivals like Cruisin’ The Coast.

“It’s not going away,” he said.

Aldermen acknowledged this week there is perhaps a need for downtown public toilets.

Mayor Connie Moran suggested installing toilets like those in one city park, which are open during the day on a timer and lock at night. It was one idea she was kicking around at the Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday.

Cody said Thursday he thinks some form of a portable comfort station would work, like those the city uses for major festivals. He thinks they would be best in an out-of-the-way central downtown location.

He said the cost to keep them clean and maintained is the big issue. He said he wants to see Ocean Springs form a team to investigate how other cities handle the issue.

He wants a solution.

“We’re worried about the cleanliness of downtown.”

The city has changed public benches and set hours on Marshall Park in an effort to stop after-hours loitering.

Now groups of five to 10 people are hanging out and sleeping in the low bushes behind a gas station and fast-food restaurant on the south side of U.S. 90.

The space opens onto the railroad tracks that divide downtown businesses from the highway.

It’s an easy walk across the tracks to the soup kitchen.

On Thursday, there was a thick buildup of litter in the area. A seemingly stray piece of paper weighed down by two oyster shells held a note to “Brian.”

At 1:30 p.m., no one was around, just the litter. An employee of one of the stores, on a smoke break, said the men congregate in about a half-block area at all hours. They come and go, he said. There’s no set time when you might find them.

City leaders are aware they are there. So are the police, but as the mayor said, “It’s not against the law to be homeless.”

In the meantime, business owners are urged to file a police report or call for help if someone gets rowdy in a store or belligerent to customers in a way that breaks the law.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Are downtown bathrooms the way to help businesses, homeless population?."