WELFARE OFFICE BANS CLIENTS FROM USING WASHROOMS

It can be a long wait to see a welfare caseworker, and if nature
calls, an even longer one.

Recently, the income assistance office in Victoria at 908 Pandora
Ave. shut down its client washrooms.

For Alex Gomez, that meant finding one in the surrounding
neighbourhood when he visited the office.

"This is a place where a client has to sometimes wait anywhere up to
four to six hours before seeing a caseworker," he wrote in an e-mail
to the Victoria News.

"When one leaves to find a washroom close by, that person will lose
his or her spot in the cue."

Gomez said he's concerned about the mothers with children or people
with health issues that need to use the washroom more frequently.

When asked about washrooms, a security guard at the office directs
clients to the nearby McDonald's restaurant, or to Our Place, a
drop-in-centre for the homeless located across the street.

The washrooms were closed to curb drug use, the security guard
confirmed. Nobody from the Ministry of Housing and Social Development
was available to a request for interviews.

The B.C. Building Code requires public service offices, such as the
income assistance office, to include washrooms in the same building.

The number of toilets required depends on the number of people the
space is intended to serve, said Brian Husband, chief plumbing
inspector with the City of Victoria.

The city inspects the building when it first opens to ensure it meets
the requirements but has no control once it is occupied, he said.

Our Place also faces drug-use in its washrooms, but has taken a
different approach to dealing with it.

"We've increased security to make it a welcoming place ... because
that's the one place we can't monitor with video cameras" said Al
Tysick, executive director.

Those caught with drugs are banned from the facility, he added. "We
certainly wouldn't close down the bathrooms, I think that's a little harsh."

People who bring drugs to the washrooms are the minority, he said.
"Certainly not all their clients are doing that."