Or just set up a tray table in the alley behind a strip club? Sit on an overturned plastic bucket, and go right to work.
Know why you don't see so many derelicts passed out in alleys anymore? Because they are down at the library, alternately snoozing and leering at the kiddies over in the kiddy section.
Downtown, anyway. It's a bit more normal in the remaining municipal libraries in the 'burbs.
Free office space! Wow.
Um, do you live on skid row or something? I'm trying to figure out where what you are describing could possibly resemble the experience the average person has in a library.
I live in Vancouver , BC. I use the Central branch (downtown) all the time, and WhiteTrashCan's description fits it perfectly. It has become worse over the last couple of years - normally I smell homeless person stink within seconds of walking in the main lobby. Men mainly, with backpacks. Sometimes they read, but about half of them are asleep. It's the worst on the main floor. On a typical day I'd guess there's between 6 and 10 homeless guys on the main floor. By the way, this is not a sketchy location, it is the jewel in the crown of all the branches, very expensive fancy architecture, many upgrades with recording studios and dedicated computers for arts.
In addition to the street homeless, there is a notable presence of equally stinky, but obviously homed single males in their 50s to 70s, who have apparently given up on bathing and washing clothes, and the not-stinky but nevertheless repellent guys who have no internet and use the public library computers to watch porn.
