The New York City Council passed the “bathroom bill” on Thursday, which will identify locations in every ZIP code across the five boroughs where a public restroom should be located.

“Every New Yorker can think back to a time when they were out and about in the neighborhood and they had nowhere to go,” Brooklyn Councilwoman Rita Joseph, who co-sponsored the bill, said at the council meeting on Thursday. 

Joseph called the lack of access to public restrooms in New York City a “universal problem” but said “it particularly affects the elderly, deliveristas, cab drivers, women, pregnant women, children and individuals with underlying health conditions.”

The bill, which passed 49-1, mandates the Department of Transportation and the Department of Parks and Recreation create a report identifying locations in each ZIP code where a public bathroom should be installed.

“Public restrooms are a crucial feature of our public space, and access to safe, clean restrooms is too limited across the city,” Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers, who chairs the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said at the vote. “Public restroom access is good for everybody regardless of who they are or where they live.”

The bill was first introduced by Joseph and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine in April. It cleared the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure earlier this month. 

New York City ranks near the bottom of a list cited in a city comptroller report of cities with the most public bathrooms per capita from 2019.

The report also found that there were just 16 bathrooms for every 100,000 residents across the city’s parks and playgrounds.

“With today's passage of Intro-258, our city is saying loudly and proudly that we recognize that the status quo is not good enough and we’re going to work to bring bathrooms to every neighborhood across the five boroughs,” Joseph said.

Lawmakers called this bill a “first step” in addressing this issue as it does not mandate the city construct any bathrooms.

Mayor Eric Adams' office did not respond to a request for comment on whether he supports the legislation.