Tenleytown Library homeless issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised to learn that homeless people have finally entered NW DC. The rest of us have been dealing with this issue for decades.

Oh cmon. Cleveland Park and Tenleytown have had homeless people for decades. I grew up there in the 80s and 90s and encountered homeless people multiple times a day.

OP, there is no grounds to say they can't come in the library. Sorry.

.

Of course there are grounds. You just don’t care about kids and their sense of safety and well-being. You’d rather feel virtuous.

[Anonymous]

DC has shelter space. These folks don't want to be in shelters and follow the rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised to learn that homeless people have finally entered NW DC. The rest of us have been dealing with this issue for decades.

Oh cmon. Cleveland Park and Tenleytown have had homeless people for decades. I grew up there in the 80s and 90s and encountered homeless people multiple times a day.

OP, there is no grounds to say they can't come in the library. Sorry.

This was my thought too. There have always been homeless in that area of Tenleytown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of disparaging these unfortunate people, you could’ve helped them.

I’m sure you have a guest bathroom and can afford basic grooming supplies if you live in upper NW? How about offering them the use of your bathroom and laundry to clean themselves up? Do you think they enjoy not bathing?

As a mother, you should really be ashamed of the example you’re setting for your children. Instead of teaching them compassion for the less fortunate, you’re teaching them to fear them. That’s seriously vile and gross.

You really are a bad person.

go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of disparaging these unfortunate people, you could’ve helped them.

I’m sure you have a guest bathroom and can afford basic grooming supplies if you live in upper NW? How about offering them the use of your bathroom and laundry to clean themselves up? Do you think they enjoy not bathing?

As a mother, you should really be ashamed of the example you’re setting for your children. Instead of teaching them compassion for the less fortunate, you’re teaching them to fear them. That’s seriously vile and gross.

You really are a bad person.

Awww gfy and stick your virtue signaling where the sun doesn't shine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why there can’t be day homeless shelters. Set up a facility so homeless can go to the bathroom and hang out in instead of using libraries and public transportation.

People need to have more sympathy for the poor/working class who use public transportation and want to use libraries. They should have a right to use these public places without vagrants interfering with their quiet enjoyment

As someone who's worked with the unhoused for years, I can tell you many don't want shelter. There are almost always significant mental health challenges that contribute.

Police used to arrest them for minor offenses, when others find them to be inconvenient and call 911, like the smell and blocking people when walking into to a public facility (merely being there isn't trespass but blocking public right of way is). But that is a bad "solution" for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which is they are back on the street in a matter of hours. So what was the point other than to give them a criminal record?

It's a mental health issue butting up against multiple constitutional issues. And there truly isn't an easy answer.

Of course there is. You just don't want to hear it.

People do not have the right to disrupt others in public places. They do not have the right to trespass or camp out in public spaces.

We need mandatory day shelters and night shelters. If you have no where else to spend the day, off you go.

Libraries should not serve as that function.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of disparaging these unfortunate people, you could’ve helped them.

I’m sure you have a guest bathroom and can afford basic grooming supplies if you live in upper NW? How about offering them the use of your bathroom and laundry to clean themselves up? Do you think they enjoy not bathing?

As a mother, you should really be ashamed of the example you’re setting for your children. Instead of teaching them compassion for the less fortunate, you’re teaching them to fear them. That’s seriously vile and gross.

You really are a bad person.

Co-sign

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why there can’t be day homeless shelters. Set up a facility so homeless can go to the bathroom and hang out in instead of using libraries and public transportation.

People need to have more sympathy for the poor/working class who use public transportation and want to use libraries. They should have a right to use these public places without vagrants interfering with their quiet enjoyment

As someone who's worked with the unhoused for years, I can tell you many don't want shelter. There are almost always significant mental health challenges that contribute.

Police used to arrest them for minor offenses, when others find them to be inconvenient and call 911, like the smell and blocking people when walking into to a public facility (merely being there isn't trespass but blocking public right of way is). But that is a bad "solution" for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which is they are back on the street in a matter of hours. So what was the point other than to give them a criminal record?

It's a mental health issue butting up against multiple constitutional issues. And there truly isn't an easy answer.

Of course there is. You just don't want to hear it.

People do not have the right to disrupt others in public places. They do not have the right to trespass or camp out in public spaces.

We need mandatory day shelters and night shelters. If you have no where else to spend the day, off you go.

Libraries should not serve as that function.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of disparaging these unfortunate people, you could’ve helped them.

I’m sure you have a guest bathroom and can afford basic grooming supplies if you live in upper NW? How about offering them the use of your bathroom and laundry to clean themselves up? Do you think they enjoy not bathing?

As a mother, you should really be ashamed of the example you’re setting for your children. Instead of teaching them compassion for the less fortunate, you’re teaching them to fear them. That’s seriously vile and gross.

You really are a bad person.

Co-sign

Maybe you can both describe the ins and outs of moving an unhoused person into your place and how you do it when you regularly bring people in off the street to use your bathroom at home. We can all learn a lot from your own examples of offering what you have to the less fortunate.

[Anonymous]

Where I live there is a shelter open all day and night. There is a lobby there where they can sit and be warm. There is laundry and a shower always available. The only caveat is that drugs and alcohol are not allowed. So they go to th library instead where no one will harass them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has shelter space. These folks don't want to be in shelters and follow the rules.

+1 I help support a homeless person who prefers to live in her car with her cat. She has mental health issues and does not want to be in a shelter. She's a kind, intelligent person with schizophrenia and does not always tell the truth about how she spends her time.

[Anonymous]

I was driving through a small town in West Virginia and had to go to the bathroom so stopped at the first place I saw, which was a public library. The bathroom was locked and there was a sign that it was for library patrons only. So it is possible that libraries can place some restrictions - but would never happen in DC…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why there can’t be day homeless shelters. Set up a facility so homeless can go to the bathroom and hang out in instead of using libraries and public transportation.

People need to have more sympathy for the poor/working class who use public transportation and want to use libraries. They should have a right to use these public places without vagrants interfering with their quiet enjoyment

As someone who's worked with the unhoused for years, I can tell you many don't want shelter. There are almost always significant mental health challenges that contribute.

Police used to arrest them for minor offenses, when others find them to be inconvenient and call 911, like the smell and blocking people when walking into to a public facility (merely being there isn't trespass but blocking public right of way is). But that is a bad "solution" for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which is they are back on the street in a matter of hours. So what was the point other than to give them a criminal record?

It's a mental health issue butting up against multiple constitutional issues. And there truly isn't an easy answer.

Of course there is. You just don't want to hear it.

People do not have the right to disrupt others in public places. They do not have the right to trespass or camp out in public spaces.

We need mandatory day shelters and night shelters. If you have no where else to spend the day, off you go.

Libraries should not serve as that function.

+1

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


As someone who's worked with the unhoused for years, I can tell you many don't want shelter. There are almost always significant mental health challenges that contribute.

Police used to arrest them for minor offenses, when others find them to be inconvenient and call 911, like the smell and blocking people when walking into to a public facility (merely being there isn't trespass but blocking public right of way is). But that is a bad "solution" for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which is they are back on the street in a matter of hours. So what was the point other than to give them a criminal record?

It's a mental health issue butting up against multiple constitutional issues. And there truly isn't an easy answer.



Of course there is. You just don't want to hear it.

People do not have the right to disrupt others in public places. They do not have the right to trespass or camp out in public spaces.

We need mandatory day shelters and night shelters. If you have no where else to spend the day, off you go.

Libraries should not serve as that function.

I agree with this. The lack of housing/shelter for the mentally ill as a result of the mass de-institutionalization of the 1980s has caused all of this. But people also have got to be willing to pay the not-insignificant costs of this type of quasi-institutional structure. There would need to be DC employees (some type of law enforcement) tasked with ferrying people from the libraries to the shelters. Once there, the shelters would need to be staffed with trained mental health professionals, plus security. Because these types of places wouldn't be on lockdown (unless we changed our commitment laws), it would be a continuous round robin of collecting people from the libraries, depositing them at the shelter, and then re-collecting them after they walk out. Honestly, there would have to be some leniency re drinking and weed---better to have someone reeking of urine in one of those shelters than the library. But this is not an easy fix to actually implement. DC did a variation of this when they handed out housing vouchers to the long term mentally ill but then required no monitoring or check-ins---with the result that there are now a lot of apartment buildings which are slowly morphing from market rate private buildings into unsupervised mental asylums. We need to stop talking about the "homeless" as one generic category and instead talk about humane treatment for the mentally ill---both for them and for society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of disparaging these unfortunate people, you could’ve helped them.

I’m sure you have a guest bathroom and can afford basic grooming supplies if you live in upper NW? How about offering them the use of your bathroom and laundry to clean themselves up? Do you think they enjoy not bathing?

As a mother, you should really be ashamed of the example you’re setting for your children. Instead of teaching them compassion for the less fortunate, you’re teaching them to fear them. That’s seriously vile and gross.

You really are a bad person.

Co-sign

Maybe you can both describe the ins and outs of moving an unhoused person into your place and how you do it when you regularly bring people in off the street to use your bathroom at home. We can all learn a lot from your own examples of offering what you have to the less fortunate.

+1