I went to the public libraries in DTLA today. Overall , I was really impressed by all of the services that they offered. I genuinely cannot wait to go back there. However, as I explored one thing became glaringly obvious. If I had to guess 1/3 of the people were homeless. Many people were sleeping in the aisles and in the working station. I saw multiple instances of librarians telling them that they cannot sleep there. If I am being honest, it lowered the quality of the experience as there were some sanitary issues in a few cases.

In my humble opinion services paid for bdy the public should be able to be enjoyed. It shouldn’t be a negative experience to go. It also shouldn’t be the librarians jobs to deal with this issue. A library has a specific purpose and that is to provide the public access to knowledge. Time, energy and resources should be going to the endeavors that we are paying for.

That being said, it is also clear that homeless people are seeking refuge here. It is hot, can be dangerous and I am sure there are many other reasons that homeless people want to camp out there. We need to make sure that we a funding the appropriate programs to take care of these problems. Does the city not have places for homeless people to go during the day? To just chill, sit in the AC, take a shower, read a book, use the restroom and etc?

Hopefully, people understand my intent here. The library was not and should not be used as a place of refuge for homeless people. Frankly, the city should have a separate space for this. We have literally paid Billions (with a capital B) for homeless housing and while that is important there just is not enough money and resources to house everyone. Are there programs that give people a place to just recoup for a bit before going back to the street? What other resources are available to the homeless?