The Downtown branch of the Greensboro Public Library has turned into an adult daycare center for homeless adults. After drinking and getting high at night, the homeless men trudge over to the library to hang out all day. Many of them sit all day in the upholstered cloth chairs by the windows, hidden behind large magazine racks and free to doze as long as they remain erect. The library public bathrooms are available as needed all day. Several evenings each week a "Feed the Homeless" group comes to serve free meals just outside the GSO Library. The beleaguered GSO Library Security Guards and librarians do their best, but numerous incidents of conflict occur daily between library staff, patrons, and the homeless men. Why doesn't the GSO City Council develop a Homeless drop-in center or daytime shelter for this population? Why has the public library assumed responsibility for homeless social service problems that should be handled by our city government?
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