ROGERS PARK — Rogers Park resident Tracy Fox was stunned recently when a woman lowered her pants at a neighborhood playground and relieved herself in public view.
“It was very disturbing to me,” said Fox, who has lived in Rogers Park for six years. “I was reflecting on it later and was thinking this person doesn’t feel like they can go somewhere and feel welcome to use the bathroom.”
It’s becoming a common refrain for some North Side residents, who are increasingly complaining about human waste on sidewalks and streets. City agencies, meanwhile, have little to say on the subject.
Facebook groups for Uptown and Rogers Park residents have hosted lively discussions this year about excrement on sidewalks.
“Y’all what in the good god is happening with this (human?????) poop situation that has been steadily evolving on the NE corner of Sheridan and Sunnyside in front of the bears mural??” asked one user this summer on an Uptown discussion board. The comment was followed by a slew of similar complaints, along with sympathy from some who lamented the lack of public restrooms.
This month, Angel Lopez took to a Rogers Park message board to complain that “the amount of human waste is out of control” near the Howard Street CTA station. His post was also followed by a mix of anger and sympathy.
“There’s just poop all over the sidewalks,” Lopez told Block Club Chicago in an interview. “I wouldn’t even know where to report it.”
Lopez said he called the office Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), but didn’t feel like his concerns were taken seriously.
That helplessness was echoed by other residents, who said city officials don’t seem willing to solve the problem. When Block Club tried to find a city agency responsible for the issue, officials at each agency either referred a reporter to another department or declined to answer questions.
Fences surround the city’s first soon-to-open self-cleaning public toilet in Wicker Park on Oct. 24, 2026. Credit: Giacomo Cain/Block Club Chicago
Hadden said her office hasn’t received many complaints about human waste but has talked to the Chicago Park District about adding portable or self-cleaning toilets. Public restrooms at 49th Ward parks usually open at 11 a.m. and close at 7 p.m., she said, which makes it difficult for unhoused people or CTA passengers to find options for the other 16 hours of the day.
The 1st Ward is preparing to open the city’s first self-cleaning restroom in the Polish Triangle, near the Division CTA station. Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) said he hopes the experiment will show other alderpeople it’s worth replicating elsewhere in the city.
“When you talk about public toilets, it conjures pictures in people’s minds of something seedy,” La Spata said. “It’s important to show people in Chicago these units are safe and sanitary.”
But the new restroom will not be open overnight, which means it will be of limited use for unhoused people and late-night commuters.
The lack of restrooms is a top concern for Chicago residents without homes, said Melissa Castillo West, a staff attorney with the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness. Other metropolitan areas around the world have shown the problem can be solved, she said.
“You travel to a place like Hong Kong and Paris and you see there are cities of comparable size that have figured it out,” West said. “It just takes coordinated effort and investment.”
Residents have complained online about businesses preventing people from using restrooms, but Fox said she’s sympathetic to business owners. The problem is the city’s responsibility, she said.
“I’ve had my share of uncomfortable experiences with people in public spaces, so I don’t know,” Fox said. “It’s not fair to make it everyone else’s problem. The government needs to be taking care of these things.”
