Tenleytown Library homeless issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you consider yourself to be a Christian or a member of any faith community, now would be a good time to stop.

Here’s a good litmus test of morality for anyone, regardless of faith. Imagine that you are saying the words you are about to say in front of Pope Leo. Do you still need to say them? Do you need to say them a different way? If you said them, what do you think he’d say back to you?

And I say this as not a Catholic.

OP here -

Thankfully I no longer consider myself a Christian because I have been able to break away from years of indoctrination and recognize hypocrisy when I see it. The treatment of people in religious communities (particularly the Catholic one I grew up in) is awful. I don’t think I need to explain much more about that.

Maybe Opus Dei who owns many properties in Tenleytown would be interested in welcoming these individuals to come stay with them.

I actually do pride myself on staying in the city with a family, showing them different cultures, and putting them around people of different faiths, colors, backgrounds, and needs. But no, I do not think I should have to expose them to the things they experienced this week in order to use a public space.

No other library I am aware of has such a prime vestibule for this sort of activity.

Public spaces are for...the public, OP.

If you don't like the FACT that there are many people without homes among the public; many people without access to showers among the public; many people facing unemployment among the public; or people facing among the public, then vote, get involved, donate, or DO SOMETHING about it.

Too bad for you that "the public" means everyone, not just those who you deem to be worthy of dignity.

That's all.

What utter BS and drivel. No, we don't have to put up with the homeless urinating and defecating in public spaces and on public transportation. They can seek help from their families, churches, synagogues, and provate sources. If they choose to not take advantage of available resources or lack the cognitive ability or mental stability to do so, then our govt services need to house them with supervision.

You should start a petition advocating for higher taxes so that the gov can take care if them.

The government already takes care of them. There was a guy living in a tent at the end of our residential block. The city wouldn’t move him. We tried CM Frumin’s office and couldn’t get any traction. Apparently, they sent out vans regularly to give him supplies and to make sure he was “comfortable.” Me and my neighbors were speechless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There have been unhoused/otherwise distressed people in every public library I’ve been to and it’s usually not an issue. The librarians are pretty on top of it. It sounds like OP just caught a bad moment.

A homeless person stabbed another homeless person to death in the Petworth library, in front of children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you consider yourself to be a Christian or a member of any faith community, now would be a good time to stop.

Here’s a good litmus test of morality for anyone, regardless of faith. Imagine that you are saying the words you are about to say in front of Pope Leo. Do you still need to say them? Do you need to say them a different way? If you said them, what do you think he’d say back to you?

And I say this as not a Catholic.

OP here -

Thankfully I no longer consider myself a Christian because I have been able to break away from years of indoctrination and recognize hypocrisy when I see it. The treatment of people in religious communities (particularly the Catholic one I grew up in) is awful. I don’t think I need to explain much more about that.

Maybe Opus Dei who owns many properties in Tenleytown would be interested in welcoming these individuals to come stay with them.

I actually do pride myself on staying in the city with a family, showing them different cultures, and putting them around people of different faiths, colors, backgrounds, and needs. But no, I do not think I should have to expose them to the things they experienced this week in order to use a public space.

No other library I am aware of has such a prime vestibule for this sort of activity.

Public spaces are for...the public, OP.

If you don't like the FACT that there are many people without homes among the public; many people without access to showers among the public; many people facing unemployment among the public; or people facing among the public, then vote, get involved, donate, or DO SOMETHING about it.

Too bad for you that "the public" means everyone, not just those who you deem to be worthy of dignity.

That's all.

What utter BS and drivel. No, we don't have to put up with the homeless urinating and defecating in public spaces and on public transportation. They can seek help from their families, churches, synagogues, and provate sources. If they choose to not take advantage of available resources or lack the cognitive ability or mental stability to do so, then our govt services need to house them with supervision.

You should start a petition advocating for higher taxes so that the gov can take care if them.

The government already takes care of them. There was a guy living in a tent at the end of our residential block. The city wouldn’t move him. We tried CM Frumin’s office and couldn’t get any traction. Apparently, they sent out vans regularly to give him supplies and to make sure he was “comfortable.” Me and my neighbors were speechless.

This is what happens when you vote for the loony left. They are not going to do anything to crack down on homeless people. They see them as victims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of keyboard warriors here whom I'm pretty sure have never done anything at all in the real world to help the homeless.

Even if that’s true, we aren’t starting threads to bash the less fortunate because we had the misfortune of smelling them. The horrros!!! I’m glad OP has to deal with the homeless actually.

Libraries are not, and should not be, de facto homeless shelters. It's our elected leaders' job to figure this out, not to foist homeless people on hapless librarians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homeless library smell has been a thing for years. It’s really unfortunate, and makes visits unpleasant. I feel bad for the staff. It’s a given I feel bad for the homeless, but also that there’s nothing that can be done about it. These beautiful libraries are not safe for children and mostly sit as tombs with books and people slowly rotting.

+1
We used to go to the Reston Library in NoVA when our kids were young. No longer. For the past decade or so, it's been exactly as the OP describes the Tenleytown Library. For some reason, public libraries are expected to act as daytime homeless shelters for mentally ill men, public patrons be damned. The Reston Library sits right next to a men's homeless shelter, but the shelter doesn't allow them in during the day. Across the street is a large police station. That is where these homeless men should be able to gather during the day - not in a library full of women and small children just trying to read books without being leered at. It boggles the mind that the police stations aren't set up to take in the homeless during the day. Instead, the librarians have to call the police at least once a day to come over and break up fights or escort a troublemaker out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of keyboard warriors here whom I'm pretty sure have never done anything at all in the real world to help the homeless.

Even if that’s true, we aren’t starting threads to bash the less fortunate because we had the misfortune of smelling them. The horrros!!! I’m glad OP has to deal with the homeless actually.

Libraries are not, and should not be, de facto homeless shelters. It's our elected leaders' job to figure this out, not to foist homeless people on hapless librarians.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only gross people in this scenario is OP and her spawn. I am sick and tired of privileged people being so completely tone deaf. OP would rather these people freeze to death than find the only shelter they have in the city. They have nowhere else to go so save me your "offensive smell" and "gag" nonsense.

They have places to go. However, those places have more rules. The library is a free for all.

Including the homeless. They belong there just as much as OP.

No, actually, they do not.

The library serves a purpose. It is for browsing books, studying, accessing the internet if you don't have it at home, making copies, going to children's story time, etc.

It is not for hanging out, loitering, sleeping, harassing people and other things that many homeless people do there. So no, they do not have the "right" to be there to misuse the facility in this way.

+1
Not to mention, completely trashing the bathrooms and/or doing drugs in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of keyboard warriors here whom I'm pretty sure have never done anything at all in the real world to help the homeless.

And here we have a keyboard social justice warrior who is part of the problem. Sorry, the taxpayers' public libraries are not homeless shelters. You want to help, feel free to invite the homeless into your own home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of keyboard warriors here whom I'm pretty sure have never done anything at all in the real world to help the homeless.

Even if that’s true, we aren’t starting threads to bash the less fortunate because we had the misfortune of smelling them. The horrros!!! I’m glad OP has to deal with the homeless actually.

Libraries are not, and should not be, de facto homeless shelters. It's our elected leaders' job to figure this out, not to foist homeless people on hapless librarians.

Even more curious because a lot of homeless people have serious mental issues. Why are we asking librarians (and library patrons) to deal with schizophrenics like that's no big deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There have been unhoused/otherwise distressed people in every public library I’ve been to and it’s usually not an issue. The librarians are pretty on top of it. It sounds like OP just caught a bad moment.

The librarian at our library has been in tears several times. She should NOT be expected to deal with these men sleeping, loitering, and leering in her place of work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of keyboard warriors here whom I'm pretty sure have never done anything at all in the real world to help the homeless.

And a lot of keyboard warriors who don't actually live in areas in which they come in contact with large numbers of homeless individuals using drugs, drinking alcohol, and urinating and defecating on public streets and in public parks, etc. If they have job skills and can be placed in public housing, then let's provide that housing. If they're mentally ill and unwilling to accept treatment or take prescribed medications, then place then in mental hospitals. If they're committing violent crimes, they need to be in prison. Public streets, parks, and yards are not acceptable housing.

Exactly. I actually hope that people like the PP have a homeless person(s) decide to make an encampment outside their home, to include threatening them and their children every time they walk by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you consider yourself to be a Christian or a member of any faith community, now would be a good time to stop.

Here’s a good litmus test of morality for anyone, regardless of faith. Imagine that you are saying the words you are about to say in front of Pope Leo. Do you still need to say them? Do you need to say them a different way? If you said them, what do you think he’d say back to you?

And I say this as not a Catholic.

OP here -

Thankfully I no longer consider myself a Christian because I have been able to break away from years of indoctrination and recognize hypocrisy when I see it. The treatment of people in religious communities (particularly the Catholic one I grew up in) is awful. I don’t think I need to explain much more about that.

Maybe Opus Dei who owns many properties in Tenleytown would be interested in welcoming these individuals to come stay with them.

I actually do pride myself on staying in the city with a family, showing them different cultures, and putting them around people of different faiths, colors, backgrounds, and needs. But no, I do not think I should have to expose them to the things they experienced this week in order to use a public space.

No other library I am aware of has such a prime vestibule for this sort of activity.

Public spaces are for...the public, OP.

If you don't like the FACT that there are many people without homes among the public; many people without access to showers among the public; many people facing unemployment among the public; or people facing among the public, then vote, get involved, donate, or DO SOMETHING about it.

Too bad for you that "the public" means everyone, not just those who you deem to be worthy of dignity.

That's all.

What utter BS and drivel. No, we don't have to put up with the homeless urinating and defecating in public spaces and on public transportation. They can seek help from their families, churches, synagogues, and provate sources. If they choose to not take advantage of available resources or lack the cognitive ability or mental stability to do so, then our govt services need to house them with supervision.

You should start a petition advocating for higher taxes so that the gov can take care if them.

The government already takes care of them. There was a guy living in a tent at the end of our residential block. The city wouldn’t move him. We tried CM Frumin’s office and couldn’t get any traction. Apparently, they sent out vans regularly to give him supplies and to make sure he was “comfortable.” Me and my neighbors were speechless.

This is what happens when you vote for the loony left. They are not going to do anything to crack down on homeless people. They see them as victims.

+1
This thread illustrates that mindset to a T.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the child of immigrant parents who did not speak English and worked long hours, the public library was my refuge. I spent countless afternoons there reading, studying, doing my homework, and talking to librarians about books and newspapers. It was safe, clean, and welcoming place. That experience no longer exists for many children today, and its loss is a profound social failure.

Public libraries have been radically transformed, not by accident but by deliberate policy choices that elevate the demands of the severely mentally ill, drug-addicted, and chronically homeless over the rights of the working class, poor families, students, and children who rely on libraries the most. This is not a rant about people down on their luck. It is about repeated, unchecked behavior that would be unacceptable anywhere else: aggressive public ranting, overwhelming filth and odor, public nudity, people soiling themselves and then occupying furniture that others will later use, harassment of minors, and the routine conversion of restrooms into makeshift bathing, laundry facilities, and places to inject drugs. These conditions are continually tolerated while staff stand by powerless or unwilling to act.

The result is that law-abiding patrons are effectively displaced from a public institution. No one can concentrate and people do not feel safe. Students are driven away from one of the few remaining free spaces for learning. When libraries become hostile or frightening environments, it is the poorest and most vulnerable law-abiding users who pay the price.

Defenders of this status quo often cloak themselves in the language of compassion. Librarians and outside advocates dismiss legitimate concerns as intolerance. This is not empathy; it is abdication. Compassion does not require sacrificing standards of hygiene, safety, or basic decency, nor does it require turning libraries into de facto homeless shelters or psychiatric wards.

It is a travesty that today, those who disrupt, intimidate, and degrade public spaces are afforded more practical rights than children trying to do homework, immigrants trying to learn English, or students trying to escape chaos at home. When libraries abandon standards, they do not become more inclusive they become unusable. And society is immeasurably poorer for it.

I agree. The city provides shelters and many of the unhoused decline to use them...so they can take over and render unusable any space they want, to the detriment of a much greater number of others? That makes no sense and is also a waste of taxpayer funds. Re the Tenleytown library, I've also stopped using the compost collection station on that corner because of the harassment I've experienced each time I've gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of keyboard warriors here whom I'm pretty sure have never done anything at all in the real world to help the homeless.

Even if that’s true, we aren’t starting threads to bash the less fortunate because we had the misfortune of smelling them. The horrros!!! I’m glad OP has to deal with the homeless actually.

Libraries are not, and should not be, de facto homeless shelters. It's our elected leaders' job to figure this out, not to foist homeless people on hapless librarians.

Take it up with the government then. Until then, these people have nowhere to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the child of immigrant parents who did not speak English and worked long hours, the public library was my refuge. I spent countless afternoons there reading, studying, doing my homework, and talking to librarians about books and newspapers. It was safe, clean, and welcoming place. That experience no longer exists for many children today, and its loss is a profound social failure.

Public libraries have been radically transformed, not by accident but by deliberate policy choices that elevate the demands of the severely mentally ill, drug-addicted, and chronically homeless over the rights of the working class, poor families, students, and children who rely on libraries the most. This is not a rant about people down on their luck. It is about repeated, unchecked behavior that would be unacceptable anywhere else: aggressive public ranting, overwhelming filth and odor, public nudity, people soiling themselves and then occupying furniture that others will later use, harassment of minors, and the routine conversion of restrooms into makeshift bathing, laundry facilities, and places to inject drugs. These conditions are continually tolerated while staff stand by powerless or unwilling to act.

The result is that law-abiding patrons are effectively displaced from a public institution. No one can concentrate and people do not feel safe. Students are driven away from one of the few remaining free spaces for learning. When libraries become hostile or frightening environments, it is the poorest and most vulnerable law-abiding users who pay the price.

Defenders of this status quo often cloak themselves in the language of compassion. Librarians and outside advocates dismiss legitimate concerns as intolerance. This is not empathy; it is abdication. Compassion does not require sacrificing standards of hygiene, safety, or basic decency, nor does it require turning libraries into de facto homeless shelters or psychiatric wards.

It is a travesty that today, those who disrupt, intimidate, and degrade public spaces are afforded more practical rights than children trying to do homework, immigrants trying to learn English, or students trying to escape chaos at home. When libraries abandon standards, they do not become more inclusive they become unusable. And society is immeasurably poorer for it.

I agree. The city provides shelters and many of the unhoused decline to use them...so they can take over and render unusable any space they want, to the detriment of a much greater number of others? That makes no sense and is also a waste of taxpayer funds. Re the Tenleytown library, I've also stopped using the compost collection station on that corner because of the harassment I've experienced each time I've gone.

You are not better or more important than the smelly homeless person. There is nothing wrong with them sitting there in the warm. The library is just as much for them as it is for you.