It’s shameful that there aren’t more public bathrooms in Honolulu. Longs Moiliili is one of countless retailers with no public bathrooms or bathrooms only for employees.

Many homeless are kupuna and families who work hard and are simply victims of poverty and Hawaii’s astronomical cost of living.

The usual standards, charts and measures by which other states are judged do not apply here. Even double-income families are not immune, squeezed by low-paying jobs, unaffordable land and homes, a finite land mass, exorbitant public utilities and a Byzantine state of public restrooms to address burgeoning homelessness.

A safe, clean place to do your business is a basic human right. To Howard Hughes Holdings Inc., Pacific Resource Partnership and the Land Use Research Foundation (LURF): we’re watching you, too. The state Department of Health, with its considerable taxpayer-generated resources, should also be held accountable.

Shame on us.

Bradley Shields

Punahou

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