The last time I was in the Seattle Downtown library, there was a gentleman shaving and taking a "shower" in the sink of the shared public restroom.

I'm of the mind there should be a place he could do that safely and easily, but that place shouldn't be the library.

Unfortunately, I don't believe there are many such places. If one is living in their tent, car, or similar situation, there are very few places where one is even allowed to exist peacefully without spending a few dollars, let alone take care of one's hygiene.

Libraries are one of the precious few places where one is not charged on entry or otherwise expected to buy something. Even public parks are increasingly hostile to the homeless, but often no real alternatives are offered. And I think that's a shame.

"should be" and "are" are often very different things.

Uh, yeah

Downtown Seattle does not exactly resemble 99% of other places in the country.

Better a library than nowhere if it will help him find a job and escape homelessness.

There should be. Libraries have taken on that role because no one else will.

My city started a program to train librarians to administer narcan and the city distributes narcan to libraries [0]. I can't imagine Chicago is has a larger homeless population than most other cities (as it's very affordable here).

[0] https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cdph/provdrs/health_pr...