This One takes a look at problems at Tampa, Florida public.
Stern notices have been posted around the building to ward off loiterers. Just inside the automatic entrance door, a metal bin restricts anyone from bringing in anything larger than a small carry-on bag. Next to the bin are leaflets listing rules of conduct, such as a ban on bathing, shaving or washing clothes in the restrooms. And two Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies are keeping an eye on visitors.
“What’s happening at the library is indicative of what’s going on downtown,” said Kristin Taylor, head of T.H.O.R.N. ministries (Thankfully Helping Others’ Real Needs), which feeds the homeless. “It’s disheartening to me.”
Make up your minds you heartless bastards!
Not that long ago there was a rather big flap here about the “big stink” from the homeless people in libaries not bathing (Rich Lowry: “kill all the librarians next”), now there is another big stink because they do. Yes, yes, I grant you a library washroom is hardly the right place to take a bath. Maybe those goddamned idiots in big government should extract their heads from their nether regions and try suppling some appropriate areas instead of continuing to stupidly freeze the homeless out of society.
Another issue to look at here is: just what do you suppose the chilling effect is going to be on low-key dissident citizens who might want to seek information about the Bush family in a milieu where the jackbooted, black shirt Bush lackeys will be on the spot to look over their shoulders?
where should the homeless bathe?
Here’s a personal anecdote: I was in a small restaurant and witnessed a homeless man who went into the single restroom and stayed there for some time. After he left, one of the waiters went there and exclaimed that the sink was stopped up and the floor was flooded. Here’s the question: do you want this happening in libraries?
Re:where should the homeless bathe?
The point is that it already is happening. The question is, what can be done about it? Will libraries start providing showers? Will librarians go to their city leaders and tell them that there needs to be a place for homeless people to go? What?
Homeless in the library
There’s no real clear solution to this problem. First off, libraries are public places and the homeless should be allowed to go there whenever the library is open. Many of the homeless that come to our library are well behaved and read voraciously. However, we do have a few who bathe in our sinks and generally muck up the restrooms. I understand, and feel sorry, that they cannot go to many other places to clean up. I think most of us will agree, though, that the library isn’t quite the proper place to shower.
Now then, some cities, most of them in the Eastern Hemisphere, offer some kind of public bath house. Some of these places charge a modest fee to use, but I remember reading that some allow homeless people to use it on certain days at certain hours. Perhaps that’s one solution. Obviously, it’d be a hideous job for whoever works there, but maybe a couple of homeless people could be hired to run and maintain the place. At the very least, it’d get some people back on their feet, and keep the showering out of the libraries, restaurants, and the like.
Don’t ask me where the money would come from to set this up. I have no idea. I don’t even know how feasible it’d be. But it is a solution that many never think of since public baths were rarely a part of American culture. Meanwhile, in parts of Europe and Japan they’re commonplace.
Just a thought.