Librarians are compassionate to the homeless

Former Springfield resident Lesley Haynes, author of a new blog, PeaceSojourner, sent me this article about homeless people in Buffalo NY and their use of the public library as a sanctuary. Springfield's homeless residents wind up at our library, also, and at libraries across the country. There was trouble for a while at the main branch with people using the rest rooms to wash up...seems to have been resolved.

Grim story of survival in the library

By Charity Vogel,News Columnist

The cold has brought them in again. It happens every year. Like swallows to Capistrano, in reverse, they come not to escape the heat but to find it. Bedraggled and grim-faced, weighed down by tattered duffels and beat-up thermoses, they trickle in as temperatures drop.
People, mostly men, who have no homes to sleep in at night, or marginal ones — in shelters or shared rental spaces with little in the way of heat or food.
To them, the Central Library isn’t a temple of knowledge. It’s got a much more practical function: survival. Read more here.
Photo from Bradleyolin's photostream at Flickr.