Relief on hold: Downtown Colorado Springs pleads for a public restroom
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Unhoused residents, business owners and parents of young children are urging Colorado Springs officials to build a permanent, accessible public restroom in the city’s downtown.
“This is a fundamental need — not just for people experiencing homelessness, but for grandparents, parents, kids and anyone who’s downtown,” said City Council member Nancy Henjum, who led recent council discussions on the issue.
Downtown Colorado Springs currently has only one public restroom. Located at Acacia Park, the facility is situated behind a structure known as The Bandshell, but it is frequently locked due to staffing shortages.
Aimee Cox, Colorado Springs’ chief housing and homelessness officer, said that even when the restroom is open, many people feel unsafe using it because access requires walking down stairs behind a building. While the city makes an effort to keep the facility clean, she said, trash and other messes often accumulate, making the restroom uninviting.
“We hear all kinds of things from people that they just don’t find that restroom usable,” Cox said.
City Council and staff began discussing the issue in early 2024 after the Colorado Springs Homeless Union pushed for action. The union, church leaders and other community members asked the City Council to include funding for a public restroom in its 2025 budget, but council members said their limited budget precluded such funding.
The Colorado Springs Homeless Union and the Downtown Partnership — unlikely allies — joined forces to urge the city to install a public restroom.
“People need a place to go to the bathroom and if they don’t have that place, they’re going to go outside,” said Max Kronstadt, an organizer with the union. “It’s dehumanizing.”
Cafés around Downtown display signs informing customers that restrooms are for paying patrons only. But for many Downtown residents, having to spend money just to use the bathroom isn’t always practical.
Andrew Resgern, who has been homeless in the city since 2008, said he doesn’t have a credit card and rarely has cash in his pockets.
“If you’re not as rich as Jeff Bezos, you’re sh—ing behind the dumpsters,” Resgern said.
Ahmad Andrews, a student at a high school near Downtown, said he often carries exactly $3.50 in his pocket to cover the cost of a small fry at Carl’s Jr., the cheapest item he can buy at any business downtown to gain access to their restroom.
“We shouldn’t even have to pay to use the restroom,” Andrews said.
Henjum worries federal spending cuts could force council members to keep kicking the can down the road. The city has not seen cuts from the federal government yet, but the City Council outlines its budget in October. She and her fellow members understand the urgent necessity of the public restroom, Henjum said, but the city’s $941 million budget can only cover so much for a city of almost half a million people. Cox said a public restroom could cost between $600,000 to $800,000.
“We aren’t meeting our current levels of service, in my opinion, and we're probably going to have to be cutting our budget,” Henjum said. “Unless something magically happens at the federal level.”
Though the end result may not be coming anytime soon, the city is conducting studies to assess the need for a downtown public restroom and where that restroom could go.
Cox said city staff are modeling their study after the San Diego State University Project for Sanitation Justice, in which researchers mapped public restrooms around San Diego County.
“The results of our work could be more regular cleaning and monitoring of our existing Acacia Park restroom, or maybe extended hours or more portable units,” Cox said. “We’re trying to figure out what works within the scope of what resources we have available.”
In April, Henjum and a friend sat in Acacia Park and watched how many park-goers attempted to open the locked restroom in the park. Henjum said they counted 20 people. Almost half had small children, she said. The restrooms don’t have a regular schedule. Open hours depend on when parks and recreation staff can get them opened and cleaned.
Peri Bolts, owner of Eclectic CO, a boutique in downtown Colorado Springs, said she feels guilty turning away customers who need to use her restroom, but that after a series of bad experiences she felt she had no other choice. Bolts offered a public restroom when she opened her store in 2018, but closed it after too many clogged toilets and shattered mirrors.
“It puts the burden on small businesses to fill that need, which puts us in a bad situation because we either have to screen who we allow to use the bathroom and who we don’t, or just say ‘sorry, no bathroom at all,’” Bolts said.
Ryan Pagel, a manager at Solar Roast Coffee, said the coffee shop used to allow anyone walking by to use its restroom, whether they bought something or not. A year ago, Solar Roast joined its neighbors in hanging a “restroom for customers only” sign on its front door for similar reasons — broken toilets, needles in restrooms and messes left behind.
“We just couldn’t keep up with that so we eventually had to shut it down,” Pagel said.
Pagel said he sees human waste on the ground at least once a month in downtown back alleys.
“There are just not enough restrooms in Downtown Colorado Springs,” Pagel said.
Emily Ward frequently brings her two children — ages 6 and 3 — to Acacia Park from her home in Falcon, about 16 miles away. The restrooms have never been open while Ward is in the park. Occasionally, she said, a business will sympathize with her having a 3-year-old and let her use the restroom.
“That can be awkward, and I shouldn’t have to use my 3-year-old to buy me bathroom access,” Ward said.
Bolts has loved watching downtown grow over the seven years she’s owned her store, witnessing a steady rise in both foot traffic and neighboring businesses, but the added traffic has put a strain on city resources, like trash cans and restrooms.
“The city is trying. I wish things could move a little faster, but I know that isn’t for lack of trying,” Bolts said.
Cox couldn’t provide a clear timeline for when — or if — a new public restroom might be added Downtown. She anticipates that President Donald Trump’s proposed $163 billion in budget cuts will strain municipalities nationwide, including Colorado Springs.
A reduction in the city’s 2026 budget, which the City Council will vote on in October, could make it more difficult to fund new facilities.
“We understand access to sanitation is a critical need,” Cox said. “But there’s a lot going on.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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