EUGENE, Ore. — For most of us, access to a clean bathroom or a place to wash our hands is something we rarely think about. But for the thousands of Lane County residents living without stable housing, these everyday necessities are often out of reach — and the consequences ripple far out into communities.
That’s the problem a new pilot initiative called Project Sanitation Justice hopes to solve.
Led by a grassroots coalition of advocates, health workers, and people with lived experience, the project is mapping every public restroom, handwashing station, and water fountain in the Eugene-Springfield metro area — and assessing whether those facilities are clean, ADA accessible, and stocked with essentials like soap and menstrual products…