Shower proposal draws heated response ________. ___. ___.____ __ ____ ___ ______ ._ _ _
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Some city leaders are throwing cold water on a plan to provide mobile showers in Fannie Robinson Park for homeless people, but others are warming up to the idea.
The initiative to provide hygiene services for people without housing received mixed reviews from City Council during a recent session, with those on the dais trying to balance compassion for an at-risk population with concerns for the town’s general welfare.
The endeavor would allow the charitable organization Taylor Center for Assistance and Navigation, or TaylorCAN, to set up a portable shower and laundry trailer in the park for four hours twice a month.
“Fundamentally, it’s a wonderful thing,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kelly Cmerek, who also voiced concerns about the location in the park and safety issues.
Councilwoman Shelli Cobb objected to the site, adding she visited a homeowner near the area who objected because he said he already faced issues with the homeless population that gathers near the park.
“It’s a tough thing because you want to help and you want to provide things, but you stand there on the front porch of this man and he says, ‘Please don’t do this’. It’s hard,” Cobb said.
The council during a Dec. 12 meeting ultimately voted to instruct staff and TaylorCAN to draw up a memorandum of understanding for the initiative but to also look for another location.
Rick Von Pfeil, chairman of TaylorCAN, indicated he has low hopes of the nonprofit successfully working with the city and may seek a private partnership.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s going to be able to go forward,” Pfeil recently said. “Parks and (Recreation Department) wanted it, the police supported it, but extreme political (factions) in the town went nuts on social media and put a lot of pressure on everybody.”
Councilman Gerald Anderson, who lives in and represents the district that includes Fannie Robinson Park, favors the proposal.
“We’re talking about humans that deserve dignity, that deserve respect, that deserve an opportunity to at least shower,” Anderson said. “Who here didn’t complain when we didn’t have water for five days, that, ‘All I want to do is take a shower’. Now we’re talking about people that maybe ain’t showered in a month, a month and a half, two months. So for me, this is the humanitarian thing to do.”
Many in the community have skewered the idea via comments on social media.
“Handouts help no one,” one poster said.
“The city doesn’t need to be involved in any way including placing it on any city property. Period,” read another comment.
While some posters did encourage humanitarian aid for homeless people, almost none advocated for the portable showers to be set up in a public park.
TaylorCAN, which owns the shower trailer, is focused on connecting those without shelter with resources to help them.
The trailer includes two enclosed, private bathrooms with showers, toilets and sinks. The unit also has two built-in laundry washers and dryers. It is completely selfcontained and TaylorCAN would supply all soap, towels and other necessities needed as well as volunteers to oversee operations.
The organization is asking the city to approve parking the trailer near a standard water hose and power outlet.
Tyler Bybee, parks director, estimated the cost of water and electricity to be less than $20 per month added to the park’s utility bills.
Bybee said the Parks Advisory Board approved the idea regarding Fannie Robinson Park when it was presented in August.
“We have problems in the parks. This would help us remedy some of those problems we’re experiencing, that our maintenance guys experience and that cost money,” Bybee said.
Those issues include people bathing in the sinks at the public restrooms in Heritage Square and showering in the splashpad.
The fact that homeless people are already using public parks for hygiene purposes, and the idea that a regularly scheduled portable shower facility would help alleviate those problems, led Police Chief Henry Fluck to tell the council the Police Department supports the initiative.
Von Pfeil said the shower trailer was being used in Georgetown and Cedar Park without any issues when TaylorCAN purchased it. The organization will continue to offer the trailer to other cities, but Taylor will now have priority over its use, he added.
“There’s a thought that a shower trailer would be a magnet and bring more unhoused people from other markets to Taylor, but I can say people that are looking for resources, need resources,” Pfeil said.
He added, “We don’t have a homeless shelter. We don’t have a warm food kitchen. So there’s not the primary things that the unhoused are going to be looking for to migrate to Taylor. They’re not going to migrate to Taylor so they can take a shower once every two weeks.”
“ “We’re talking about humans that deserve dignity, that deserve respect, that deserve an opportunity to at least shower.”
— Councilman Gerald Anderson
