Kamin: Free feminine hygiene products at city facilities are 'about dignity'

The Houston City Council approved Mayor Sylvester Turner’s new $6.2 billion budget on June 7, and among the items included is free feminine hygiene products at municipal facilities, according to a report from Houston CBS affiliate KHOU.

“It is not talked about enough,” Councilwoman Abbie Kamin, who initially offered an amendment to the fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget until the city council reached an agreement, said in the report. “There’s something called ‘period poverty’ where women in lower income brackets often have to choose between food or period products.

“So much so that local organizations like National Council of Jewish Women do annual drives for period products to gather supplies for people in need,” Kamin added.

Under the plan in which there will be involvement from the city’s health department, over 30 city-run buildings will provide these products.

Per Kamin, any woman who needs one of the products won’t have to resort to asking a city worker, but instead, they’ll be able to get it themselves. 

“It’s about dignity,” she told KHOU. “Rather than somebody having to go to a front desk and say, ‘May I have one?’ which no woman should have to do, they will be placed in restrooms.” 

Kamin added the plan will be carried out later this year, the station reported.

According to a report from Houston NPR affiliate Houston Public Media (HPM), the budget earned council approval by way of a 15-2 vote, with At-Large Council Members Mike Knox and Michael Kubosh the only dissenters to the item.

HPM reported that the budget, which is $380 million more than last FY’s, includes a 3% pay increase for city employees and a 6% pay hike for firefighters, making it the third time in almost half a decade the latter received a raise.

“I can say that we are leaving the City of Houston as we move forward, in better fiscal shape than when I inherited, now that I can say without doubt,” Turner said in the report.