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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Homeless people in Yellowknife do have a place downtown to use the washroom.

It's in an alley between 49 and 50 Street behind the Taste of Saigon restaurant and the back, east-facing wall of Overlander Sports.

Yellowknife resident Henry White points to an area in an alley between 49 and 50 Street which homeless people regularly use to relieve themselves. He said the practice has been going on for about six months. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo Homeless treated like dogs; forced to defecate behind downtown businesses

When Yellowknifer visited the site on Friday, there was a bucket - half-filled with human waste - in the corner behind a dumpster and a concrete block. Surrounding it was a mound of urine-soaked toilet paper and more human feces in an area about two-to-three-feet wide in some places and stretching about ten feet down the east-facing wall.

Henry White, who lives in an apartment suite above the restaurant, said when the bucket is full its users dump it on the spot, hence the growing pile of filth.

"This has been going on for about six months," said White.

"People are going in there for a piss and squatting down in front of my door."

He doesn't blame them. He said the open latrine behind his apartment is the predictable outcome of shutting off access to washroom facilities for homeless people.

If there were accessible, public washrooms downtown, people wouldn't have to resort to this, he said.

"The homeless people, they're treated like dogs," said White. "They got to shit somewhere."

Across the alley Kevin Mackie, co-owner of the Northway Building on 49 Street, was busy sweeping up an evening's worth of cigarette butts and other litter from an alcove behind the building.

He said he once caught someone trying to defecate there but he chased him away. Homeless people regularly seek shelter in the alcove and then urinate on the door, write graffiti and burn the back door's plastic key-card reader with cigarette lighters, he said.

"I'm getting sick and tired of it," said Mackie.

Duane Fleming, chief environmental health officer with Stanton Territorial Health Authority, said his department hasn't received any complaints about the back-alley latrine but said under his department's authority and the city's, businesses can be forced to clean it up.

Diseases associated with human feces include salmonella and E. coli, said Fleming.

He said even though his department hasn't received any complaints, it appears that people urinating and defecating on city streets is a growing problem.

"Most businesses have now locked their doors to washrooms so that doesn't leave street people any alternatives," said Fleming, adding "it's not brain surgery" to figure out where the homeless go to relieve themselves now.

A manager at Taste of Saigon, who declined to give her name, said they try their best to keep the area clean but the homeless people keep coming back.

"I try to clean it once a week or once a month if it's too noticeable," the woman said.

"But sometimes it's hard when you're doing the business and keeping the back alley clean too, it's too much."

She said the area behind the restaurant was cleaned up on Sunday. When Yellowknifer stopped by the following day, most of the mess, including the bucket, were gone save for the odd scattered piece of toilet paper.

Sandra Stirling, co-owner of Overlander Sports, said she never noticed the pile of waste - it was around the corner from the store's entrance and parking area - but said she is aware there is a problem in the city. She said the city needs a homeless drop-in centre.

"I think there needs to be more than just washroom access," said Stirling.

"I think there needs to be a place where they can drop in and have a cup of coffee, get some counselling, use the washroom, read a magazine. Because what's happening is they're all hanging in and around the post office, which used to be nice but isn't nice anymore."

Julie Gould-Benreddad, director of community services at the Salvation Army, said the facility is open during the day for homeless men to shower, do laundry and use the washrooms from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. There are two showers and four washrooms. There is also a nighttime shelter but clients must be relatively sober and in good behaviour to stay overnight.

Last month, the Salvation Army recorded 129 showers taken during the day and 272 loads of laundry washed. The facility doesn't keep statistics on washroom use.

Gould-Benreddad said a typical day will see 15 people come in and take a shower. She said the homeless shelter received about $50,000 a year from the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition - a group represented by the city and several non-profit groups and concerned citizens - to help cover the costs of providing the laundry, showers and other services but that money dried up last year.

"The Salvation Army is trying to keep (the showers and laundry) going but there are financial stresses," said Gould-Benreddad.

She acknowledged that the shelter is often the only place downtown where homeless men can go to use the washroom. Women can go to the Centre for Northern Families and use a washroom there. Downtown malls and businesses typically turn homeless people away or keep the washrooms locked.

"They kick them out," said Gould-Benreddad.

Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins has raised the issue of homeless people going into downtown alleys to relieve themselves twice in the legislative assembly in recent weeks.

He was trying to get a commitment from Health and Social Services Minister Sandy Lee to help establish a public washroom downtown free for the homeless to use but the minister responded repeatedly that it's a "municipal issue."

"I've seen someone pee downtown, I've seen people downtown who have soiled themselves but they have nowhere to go," said Hawkins.

"I keep trying to reference the humanity of this aspect and where is it? It's very clear we got to provide something."

He said downtown businesses also have a stake in ensuring homeless people have washroom access.

"The business community has a vested interest in making sure the community is clean," said Hawkins.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the only thing he's seen that might work other than charging people for public urination and defecation under the city's bylaws is establishing a monitored washroom facility. One suggestion that has popped up is purchasing self-sanitizing washrooms such as those installed in Vancouver but Van Tighem doesn't think those will work.

"Every community that has brought in the self-sanitizing washroom now has them up for sale," said Van Tighem.

"They're programmed to do certain things and it doesn't take people very long to figure out how to deal with the programming.

"The only thing that works is a staffed washroom, even if it's someone sitting behind a plate-glass window giving you the key."

In any event, Van Tighem said there won't be a solution until the city, territorial government and other affected groups come together to co-ordinate one.

"What we really need is for Sandy (Lee's) administration and our administration and probably someone from the homeless coalition to sit down and say, 'what's going on?' Because what we're getting are people's perceptions," said Van Tighem.