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.

Drop a large can of yams on your toes, D.

"Moulton photographs or video-records each library patron..." Well, I hope she gives them an opt-out on that.

Apropos of "opt-out," I was sent through one of those newfangled millimeter-wave scanners at the Philly airport last week. No, I didn't opt out...you think I want to get on some kind of list??!? So now a TSA screener has seen me naked. (Lucky devil!)

Nice work, Laura! Mult Co Library has a similar program that donates books to transitional housing and shelters [http://www.multcolib.org/los/shelters.html] but you have to be a tenant or pay to enter some of these shelters. It is nice that Street Books is there to offer an entirely free option to those without a permanent address.

Oh yeah, she does give them an opt out, it's not mandatory. I should clarify that.

cool?

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.

D, I just donated $10 in your name. Thanks!

@scottm:
Many of them do go to libraries to read, and people like yourself are just as offended by the sight of them there as anywhere else. Generalizations like yours about drug abuse are always a nice touch.
And by the way, next time you're near a library, check out a dictionary.

Good on her for doing this but I'm confused....MultCo library cards are free, what's wrong with those? Can't return books on time/can't pay late fees? Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious here but it seems like this is kind of redundant.

If I was homeless I would be insulted, you just don't want to share library with the stinking homeless that's going to spread odor to the building, don't you. Be Honest!

@scottm:
You couldn't be more spot on, seriously! I so hope "The Mercury" gets a better view of the street trash in the area, as they enjoy being inside an office. Perhaps the merc could extend some compassion and invite them in? Feed them lunch, I mean that's what "good" people do right? I mean, why are you even pretending to not think these people attribute nothing useful to society!
Homelessness is an industry! The more of them, the more grants, and fundraisers, and useless book carts that do shit to solve any real problem.
Yay Portland, the city I once loved, as I grew up here.
Thanks!

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?