6 ms·
Libraries around me have just become a homeless shelter. Pretty sad because the buildings themselves are actually quite nice and I'd use them often if it weren'
by akouri 3mo ago
Libraries around me have just become a homeless shelter. Pretty sad because the buildings themselves are actually quite nice and I'd use them often if it weren't for the high likelihood of being harassed.
- ctdinjeu9 3mo ago[dead]
- TurdF3rguson 3mo agoYou mean being asked for spare change makes you avoid that library? Why not just give them your change?
- ghaff 3mo agoI don't have any change on me.
- queenkjuul 3mo agoDo what I do: kindly tell them you have no change. Works for me every time
- onetokeoverthe 3mo ago[dead]
- IshKebab 3mo agoIt's still annoying though.
- queenkjuul 3mo agoBoohoo
- trick-or-treat 3mo agoJust say that then. Or give them a dollar.
- ghaff 3mo agoUsually don't have dollars either.
- trick-or-treat 3mo agoThen just shrug and keep walking like 99% of the rest of humans
- ghaff 3mo agoWhich is what I do.
- trick-or-treat 3mo agoSounds like you've got it figured out.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- hsuduebc2 3mo agoSure, that's exactly what you want in library. I understand it's tough for them but some of the homeless people are not people you enjoy you want to be around. I don't understand this need to spread this sentiment.
- TurdF3rguson 3mo agoYou will encounter homeless people in libraries, because it's one of the few public spaces that won't kick them out. Your reaction to that shouldn't be to hate and avoid libraries though. It should be to appreciate them more.
- vasco 3mo agoThe guy didn't said he hated it, you did. He just said he avoided it. I would too. The same way I wouldn't want to hang out at a homeless shelter (and why many homeless themselves avoid any places with many other homeless people).
- TurdF3rguson 3mo agoI would avoid homeless shelters because I have no reason to be there. But I won't avoid libraries because I do have a reason to be there, and I know there's no reason to be scared of interacting with homeless people. They're just people and the library is for them too.
- vasco 3mo agoThey're not just average people, they're people with a particular condition which is more than likely associated with mental health issues, lack of social skills and several times more likely to be dealing with an addiction problem than a normal person. Plus all the trust issues of having lived in the street. Only someone who hasn't interacted a lot with the homeless would say they are just like everyone else. Even if the reason they became homeless was just random by the time they've been homeless for a couple of years they are a different person. There's a reason many of the homeless avoid shelters, if you talked to one you'd know why, and it's not because the other guests are lovely kind people to be around.
- llbbdd 3mo agoIndistinguishable from a joke
- MomsAVoxell 3mo agoThis is a sad state of affairs. I hope wherever you live can pull out of the dive. Libraries are amazing and I would say that the fact they are so under funded and eventually turn into little more than a place to sleep, is very unfortunate. I have woken up so much, sitting in a library for days, reading, reading, reading .. If it weren’t for libraries, I’d have only read 1984 and not Down and Out in Paris and London, nor the one about Aspidispira, works with gravitas which fundamentally changed my opinion about personal responsibility at a respectable age. I wonder if any of those homeless folk get a chance to talk to the ghosts of those aisles. Probably the library worked, once.
- steinwinde 3mo agoPlease critisize the harassment, not libraries for providing shelter to homeless people. A well managed library has a degree of supervision that allows the visitor to do something about harassment. This level of control is also important for homeless people, who are subject to harassment more than most. A reasonably well run library is also no place to consume alcohol or drugs in plain sight. In these respects libraries are so much more apt places than train/subway stations - something acknowledged by large user groups: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/services-poor-homeless https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/serv... 15 years ago I lived in East London, and when I came to borrow books (e.g. to the "Idea Store Whitechapel"), I felt some sort of proudness seeing homeless people hanging out there, listening to mp3, having a coffee in the cheap cafeteria or - yes! - reading: True inclusion seemed to work in so few places in the country - at least there it was tangible. I live in Marseille/France now and haven't noticed this here; but a homeless person is not necessarily obvious - next time I visit, I'll have a look!
- petcat 3mo ago> A well managed library has a degree of supervision that allows the visitor to do something about harassment. Library staff in my city are instructed not to do anything themselves about homeless. If there's a problem then they just call the police, who are equipped to handle it. Same as the city bus drivers are not going to enforce paying fares or making sure no riders are causing problems. They just pull over and call the police. Their is no polite "middle ground" where a librarian can just confidently ask a disruptive homeless person to vacate the library. 9 times out of 10 that confrontation will escalate into a full blown incident. That's why the rule is always just to call the police.
- beepbooptheory 3mo agoSeems like such a confident, exact number here.. How do you arrive at that? I've lived around and been friends with homeless people my whole life.. I can't even think of one thing 9 out of 10 of them shared beyond there general circumstances. They are just people, how can it be alright or even really rational to talk about them like this?