Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino is pictured during a budget meeting at City Hall on Nov. 28.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino plans to discuss putting two portable toilets at the Woodlawn Avenue Parking Garage for the homeless to use as part of his agenda for the City Council’s Tuesday evening meeting. 

“The reality is we know the Woodlawn garage is being used by the homeless and they’re urinating and defecating in the stairwells, so my feeling is I’d like to discuss the possibility of putting some form toilet facilities in that vicinity to provide some modicum of human decency for people who have no facilities at all,” Montagnino said Monday. 

The city had been intending to create a low-barrier homeless shelter at 5 William St., which would also house a Code Blue shelter in the winter. However, in early February Shelters of Saratoga (SOS) backed out an agreement with the city for the William Street location following threats to organization officials. Around that same time Saratoga Central Catholic School parents began raising concerns about the shelter’s proximity to the school. The shelter would have shared around 200 feet of property with the school’s playing fields. 

Following the fallout of the Williams Street shelter, Mayor Ron Kim established a task force aimed at determining whether a low-barrier shelter was what the city needed, where the shelter could go and who would operate it. 

That task force met for the first time on March 2. 

In the meantime, Montagnino said the Code Blue shelter will be ending as days get warmer and the city needs to address what is happening in Woodlawn. 

He said the two handicapped accessible portable toilets with cleanings three times a week would cost the city under $1,000 a month. 

He said part of the discussion, should the city decide to move forward with the idea, would be determining how to pay for the toilets. 

“There are  a number of different potential sources,” he said. 

He said the discussion would surround whether it would be a public works function or an emergency services issue or something that could come from the city’s contingency funds. 

Advocates of the homeless said the idea is great. 

SOS Executive Director Duane Vaughn said he hasn’t heard anything about this yet but “the lack of public restrooms is a significant issue.” 

“Having appropriate bathroom and wash facilities along with laundry stations is critical to the health and dignity of our homeless individuals,” he said.

Saratoga Stronger Founder Sherie Gritner said if the city does this the bathrooms need to be in a visible spot. 

“It would absolutely be good for sanitation and hygiene for the housed, as well as the unhoused,” she said.   

RISE Housing and Support Services Executive Director Sybil Newell did raise a bit of concern regarding the continued upkeep of the toilets. 

“While we can understand the impetus for wanting to supply a safe space for people to use the bathroom, our concern is the upkeep of those spaces, and whose responsibility it is to do that,” she said. “Our hope is that the city would also consider keeping the only municipal public restrooms in Congress Park open, and well-serviced, year round.”

You must be logged in to post a comment.