Denver, Co. Call for Funding for Portable Toilets and Sanitation Resources for the Houseless Community!!

For the past 4 months we at Denver Homeless Out Loud have been paying for port-a-potties at 5 different encampments where people live on the streets with otherwise no access to a bathroom. We have asked the City to fulfill their responsibility and place portable toilets, handwashing stations, and trash cans at every encampment and they have continued to refuse. So we as a small community organization have had to front the bill for the few we could afford.

Thanks to a $25k grant from the Colorado Health Foundation for emergency COVID needs, we were able pay for 5 portable toilets, supplies for handwashing stations (in collaboration with Mutual Aid Denver (MAD), trash cans and bags for each toilet, sharps boxes, and compensation for people living on those blocks to clean the toilet units every day.

But we have now run out of those funds.

In order to keep providing the sanitation resources at encampments, we need some serious funding for this project ASAP!!

As long as the City continues to refuse to do their job, someone has to step up to do it for them. We need your help to make this possible.

In order to continue to run these port-a-potties and sanitation resources for the remainder of 2020 we need at least $25k. If we do not get at least 5k by September we will not be able to continue these resources. It costs us just over $800 a month for each regular portable toilet, and $1000 for an ADA toilet, plus moving charges after police sweeps, plus the pay for someone from the encampment to do an extra cleaning of it each day, plus cleaning supplies and supplies to build and maintain the handwashing stations.

Furthermore, in order to keep these resources available on the streets in 2021, we need at least $100k. This would enable us to maintain these resources in 2021, and if there were more funding we could expand these resources to more encampments and with more needed services.

These are basic human needs. The CDC guidance tells cities to provide these sanitation resources to every encampment of 10 people or more. Denver has not provided these for any encampment. As we continue to fight for the City to step up and do their job, we also ask the community for support in meeting this need.

Please contact us with any questions, donations, or ongoing funding.

Contact us at:
info@denverhomelessoutloud.org
720-940-5291 or 415-517-5603