Reading the comments attached to the article is... interesting. Quite a few are negative, some so negative that I'm not sure if they're sarcastic or not:
Portland - there's nothing we won't do to get more homeless people around here.
If we give homeless people books, what incentive will they have to get jobs and buy books like decent citizens? We should deprive these people of as much as possible, because to do otherwise just encourages them to go on existing. Maybe if we all try just a little harder to make their life more of a living hell, they'll go away and we won't have to (not) deal with them.
I see you are catering to the drug infested homeless camp to your left in the photo. might as well, clean and safe picks up their garbage every morning, Saturday Market scrubs up there poop and piss, drug dealers make deliverys to them as well as the Ned Flanders style Christans who bring them sandwiches and coffee. The only time they leave is to go to the liquor store up the block. God forbid they would have to go to the library to get a book on there own.
I... don't think they're trying to be sarcastic. Just when the comment thread was getting depressing, though, this comment showed up:
Sure, it's free to take books out of the county library, but you have to have an address to sign up for a library card.
Homelessness isn't the piece of cake some commenters seem to think it is. Think of an endless camping trip, only there's no toilet, there are no showers, you could be rousted and chased away from your campsite at any moment, and you have to deal with disdainful stares and comments from many of the people you encounter. You need an address to apply for most jobs, not to mention that you'll need to get yourself cleaned up before you can interview. You have no secure, safe place for your belongings so you have to carry everything with you at all times and chances are high that you could be a victim of theft or violent crime. Then there's the question of how you're going to eat.
I know too many people who were sure homelessness could never happen to them until it did. If you have a home in Portland to go to at the end of the day, you are LUCKY. Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of taking that luck for granted and scorning the folks who weren't so fortunate, you could do something to share your good fortune with people who need a little help?
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