Bathrooms and showers are essential services in many harm reduction spaces—but they also come with unique safety, privacy, and accessibility considerations. Creating clear expectations, preparing for medical emergencies, and designing with compassion can help ensure these spaces remain safe, dignified, and functional for everyone who uses them.

• MOST CRITICALLY: Ensure your doors can be opened from the outside in case of a medical emergency.
• Post signage clearly and in multiple languages.
• Walk people through expectations for using the facilities first, and enforce any boundaries consistently. If there are exceptions for certain populations, for example, elderly people, people who are pregnant, or people with disabilities, make those clear as well.
• Make time limits and enforce them, but with compassion. More than one harm reduction OG gently reminds you that sometimes the bathroom or shower at a drop-in is literally a person’s only privacy. Persistent, patient reminders are more likely to extract folks than pounding on the door.
• Though it may be “against the rules” to use drugs in your bathroom, assume that people will use either drugs or insulin and prepare accordingly—have bright enough lighting, easily disinfected surfaces like steel, tile or laminate, sharps containers, and disinfecting wipes.
• DO NOT put in blue or black lights with the intention of discouraging people from using drugs in your space. People will still use drugs; they will simply do so less safely and will take a lot longer because they cannot see properly