Going to the bathroom is a basic human need.

It is what spurned the request this week by the Manteca City Council to have staff explore options and costs associated with placing public restrooms at select neighborhood parks that get heavier than normal use.

This isn’t the first time the subject has come up.

A few years back several elderly people who walked to their neighborhood parks to either just soak up being outside in a pleasant environment or to get in mileage for their daily constitutionals by doing laps, asked council members to consider placing restrooms in more parks.

It was also a concern of parents who had kids that needed to use the bathroom while participating in organized sports team practices in neighborhood parks.

Like everything else, it is a question of money.

But there is more to it than that.

That “more” is the homeless. Or more precisely the problematic homeless

It wasn’t too many years ago Manteca under the leadership of then City Manager Karen McLaughlin that the Library Park restrooms were locked up to general public access for nearly two years.

The reason was two-fold. The drug addicts among the homeless were shooting up in the restrooms and even engaging in sexual acts. City parks crews on a daily basis were having to clear the restrooms of hypodermic needles that were often tossed on the floor as well as used condoms.

Also, in the process of taking the equivalent of a sponge bath other homeless were making a major mess. Such bathroom bathing is why more than a few businesses stopped allowing public access to their restrooms.

Needles left from shooting drugs as well as used condoms created problems for Orchard Supply Hardware before they went of business. The homeless would break into tool sheds on display in front of the store after it closed. Some sought impromptu sleeping quarters. Others engaged in sex and drugs.

More than a few times city crews opening the Library Park restrooms in the morning came across homeless who had broken in during the night for a place to sleep.

It was also during McLaughlin’s tenure as city manager that Manteca was forced to replace a contract worker who locked city restrooms at Lincoln Park, Library Park, Northgate Park, and Woodward Park among others with an armed security service.

The reason was the homeless were aggressively confronting the workers who were trying to lock up the restrooms.

The deployment of the Manteca Police community resource officer to work with the homeless and deal with issues they caused has greatly reduced such issues at the Library Park restrooms and other locations.

There is also more to the Rubik’s Cube puzzle that public restrooms in parks — and elsewhere — posed in this era of seemingly endless homeless issues.

There are — based on the last count — roughly 200 homeless in Manteca.

And like the sheltered among us they have to go to the bathroom.

Taking care of aftermath of the “No. 1” function when they have to go is a problem.

Doing it along the Tidewater, shrubs in a park, an alley, or commercial landscaping is one thing. While it is illegal to do so and certainly not the best public health practice those that urinate elsewhere against buildings, on concrete and in doorways more often than not created stench issues in addition to unsightly stains.

To combat that after hours in the downtown area, Manteca under Miranda Lutzow’s tenure as city manager placed a portable toilet just off the Tidewater near the train tracks a bit northwest of Library Park in downtown.

It was clear many homeless used it as intended as traces of the No. 2 were greatly reduced in nearby shrubbery. But the portable toilet was yanked after incidents of fire damage and needle use.

And where do you think those that occupy the more than 30 illegal encampments nestled against the bank of the southbound Highway 99 transition lane to thew westbound Bypass do when they have to take care of the No. 1 and No. 2?

They do what their peers at many other homeless encampments do. They use 5-gallon buckets — think the orange ones from Home Depot where they also commander the store’s utility carts customers pile with everything from bags of soil to water heater — for use as the homeless’ version of a U-Haul truck.

This clearly is a public health issue.

Does this mean going to the bathroom where ever or in a bucket is what the vast majority of the homeless prefer to do? Absolutely not.

Prime examples are those that make use of the city’s traditional portable potty at Spreckels Park BMX located within wrought iron fencing when it is unlocked. That is also the case with the portable toilet at the fueling station on Moffat Boulevard at Cowell Avenue.

The city should examine the potential placement of non-traditional restrooms at select neighborhood parks and strategic locations in Manteca.

By lumping together the needs of two distinct constituencies — park users and the homeless —  the city can explore overlapping issues given the homeless will be able to use the same bathrooms the park users do.

The set-up at Spreckels Park complete with wrought-iron fencing and landscaping that tones down the fact there is a porta-potty seems to be working fairly well.

It is also placed in a manner that where it is in a well-traveled location without being obtrusive.

And by trying to address placements of toilets on public property elsewhere whether it is near the homeless encampment behind Spreckels Business Park, along the Tidewater near downtown or whatever location may be appropriate as they may be able to lower the number of times in a given day some 200 homeless use Manteca per se as a free-range toilet.

The real answer to the homeless problem including going to the bathroom is being offered by Inner City Action through the city’s emergency tent shelter on Industrial Park Drive.

And once that gives way to a more permanent homeless navigation center with sleeping spaces in big enough numbers that allow the city to put legal pressure on homeless to sleep there when there are empty beds, the public health issue of homeless going where they can will be reduced.

The city, if they proceed with placing more restrooms, needs to do so with eyes open.

The minimum they will need is to hire at least one more park worker to stay on top of the situation as well as additional police officers dedicated to getting the homeless off the streets and reducing homeless quality-of-life crimes.

And while one may not be wild about the idea of having to pay to keep additional restrooms opened by the city clean due to homeless concerns and other vandalism issues, it certainly is a more pressuring city need than $1 million for another downtown study,

As more than a few downtown merchants have pointed out, conducting another study is nothing more than flushing $1 million down the proverbial toilet if the city can’t take steps to address homeless-related issues that undermine efforts to move the central district forward.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com