Everyone poops. That’s the title of a children’s book and a fact of life. But a dearth of publicly accessible bathrooms in the Bay Area — and across the U.S. — often forces people to either pay up at a local business, sneak around restricted areas, scope out a secluded corner or just stay home.

For a quarter of a million dollars, Berkeley is one step closer to helping its residents, visitors and workers find relief.

The city will soon install its first 24-hour public restroom, called a Portland Loo, located at Telegraph Avenue and Channing Way. Last week, the Berkeley City Council approved a $262,666 contract with GradeTech Inc. to install the restroom in the dense residential and commercial corridor — only blocks away from UC Berkeley and People’s Park.

Findings of a 2018 study of Berkeley’s restrooms — conducted by Hyphae Design Laboratory, a local expert in public sanitation and ecological design — showed that Telegraph was one of the areas in highest need of a public sanitation facility.

Completed in 2020, the citywide study reported Berkeley owned and managed public restrooms at 46 locations — spread around recreation centers, parking garages, sports fields, schools and the marina. Yet, an online survey reported that 82% of locals would use public restrooms more often if they were better cleaned and maintained, while 63% desire access to a sink and soap.

If the Portland Loo at Telegraph and Channing is a success, it will act as a pilot project for future public restroom locations across Berkeley. Possible sites include the intersections of San Pablo and University avenues, as well as Alcatraz Avenue and Adeline Street, according to a 2022 community meeting presentation.

After the upcoming 24-hour latrine is installed in the coming months, it will be only the second such site in the East Bay; Emeryville approved its Portland Loo for $99,000 during the construction of the city’s Joseph Emery Skatepark around 2015, and another $41,000 was needed for installation.

These standalone restrooms are also located in Davis, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Diego and Santa Rosa.

While the U.S. and California have both declared access to sanitation a basic human right, 65% of unhoused people have been denied access to a restroom in private businesses, according to a study by the National Coalition for the Homeless. But this effort will also help others who the American Restroom Association deems “restroom-challenged,” including pregnant people, young children and seniors.

“As homelessness continues to increase in Berkeley and throughout the Bay Area, cities must take action to protect the human dignity of their unhoused population,” Robinson wrote in 2019. “Furthermore, public restrooms serve as a boost for tourism and foot traffic. People are more likely to bike, walk, and explore a public space if they know that a restroom is available.”

These prefabricated, stainless steel standalone structures offer users a single ADA-compliant stall, featuring a detached pedal-operated hand washing station, water and sewer connections, LED lights to discourage drug use and a solar panel-powered battery.

This project has been a long time coming for Councilmember Rigel Robinson, who first requested $100,000 to research a freestanding public restroom facility in October 2019, tapping another $93,000 in outside funding from the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s office and the developer of a nearby student housing building.

As the representative for the district, he said Tuesday’s vote is a game changer for nearby small business owners, students, unhoused neighbors and visitors, alike.

“I think ready access to bathrooms at all hours is an essential component for a livable, equitable city and a thriving commercial district,” Robinson said in an interview, adding that discussions are brewing about adding art on the Portland Loo’s outer walls. “This is an urgent need, and I’m very glad that after years of discussion and technical delays — due to operational constraints in the streets with utility connections — this project will soon be underway and completed.”

On average, there are only eight public toilets per 100,000 people, according to the Public Toilet Index in 2021. Notably, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose did rank in the top 10 cities in the country for restrooms per capita.

But as one UC Berkeley student starkly pointed out four years ago, the Telegraph district doesn’t fare that well: “We offer 12 different types of boba tea, but you won’t be able to find a public restroom if you are here after dark.”

The city will only be on the hook for effectively 1% of the Portland Loo’s initial cost, since $260,000 will be sourced from a 2021 settlement with UC Berkeley, who agreed to pay the city $4.1 million annually for its students’ use of city services. The remaining $2,666 will be pulled from T1 bond measure funds, which voters approved in 2016 for improvements to city infrastructure and facilities. Other base bids to complete the job ran as high as $440,000 and $538,000, according to city documents.

Additionally, the Public Works Department is currently cobbling together a funding request for maintenance, which will be provided by the Telegraph Business Improvement District. While Portland Loos are designed to be hard to deface and easy to clean, existing structures are still susceptible to some plumbing issues, graffiti, and syringes — similar to most accessible public bathrooms.

Berkeley’s six-figure financial obligation is comparable to public latrines across the country. Notably, that price tag isn’t as loo-dicrous as the controversial $1.7 million single-stall toilet proposed in San Francisco. Extensive backlogs and bureaucratic tape in city hall were blamed, in part, for the crappy financial plan, which prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to hold state funding budgeted for the project until the city “delivers a plan to use this public money more efficiently.”