Anaheim may allow the return of portable toilets for use by homeless people living in encampments on the Santa Ana River bike trail.

An item on the City Council agenda for Tuesday, Aug. 29, would authorize city staff to issue a conditional permit to advocates who want to locate three portable toilets at the river bed south of Angel Stadium.

Back in May, advocates placed the toilets near the bike trail without permission. The city confiscated the portables and put them in storage at a public yard for the owners to reclaim. They are still there.

Councilman Jose Moreno said he was contacted a few weeks ago by homeless advocates who seek to alleviate the lack of adequate toilet facilities for hundreds of homeless people living in tents and makeshift shelters from Chapman to Katella avenues along the river bed.

Moreno asked that the issue be placed before the council this week after directing the advocates to city staff about seeking a permit. He supports the idea of providing some type of restroom for homeless people along the bike trail.

“It’s simple human dignity,” Moreno said, noting that the alternative – relieving oneself in buckets or tossing out urine-filled plastic bottles along the trail – is unsanitary and “people are disgusted by that.”

The nonprofit group Orange County Poverty Alleviation Coalition bought the toilets secondhand and placed them at a spot by the bike trail that falls under county jurisdiction. The county was set to remove the toilets when homeless advocate Mohammed Aly relocated them to Anaheim city property near the firefighters training center at Orangewood Avenue and Rampart Street. They were removed shortly after.

The lack of adequate restroom facilities for homeless people at the river bed has been an ongoing issue. Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer pledged at a public meeting in May to write a check to cover a $2,000 permit that would be required if the portable toilets were allowed on county property.

There has been no support from the rest of the board for the portable toilets. But on Aug. 1, the county opened public restrooms along the bike trail near the Honda Center at Katella Avenue for use 24 hours a day, with a security guard under contract from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Aly said that the proposed conditional permit with Anaheim would require supporters to show they can adequately maintain the portable toilets and present liability insurance, both of which have been secured.

“We’ll be prepared to service them every day if that’s what would be required,” said Aly, a young lawyer and activist who focuses on poor people. “I want to see this work out. I want to make conditions safer for people living at the river bed.”

The Rock Church in Anaheim has pledged to pay for six months of servicing the portable toilets, said Donald Dermit, a church member who works as a pastor to homeless people.

“We need to start somewhere,” Dermit said. “If that goes fine, then we’ll sign up again for another six months, or if something needs to be changed our church can look at it.”