Concerns raised over homeless bathing in restrooms of Santa Maria Public Library

It’s a dialogue that started in a facebook group.

A Lompoc mom writing Wednesday morning she had an encounter with the homeless at the Santa Maria Library that made her uncomfortable.

Michelle Williams says she and her husband both witnessed homeless people bathing themselves in the sinks of the library bathrooms. Williams isn’t the only one bothered by the homeless who gather there.

“I have seen people bathing there myself whenever I go by there and I don’t even go there anymore because of that,” said a man currently staying at the Good Samaritan Shelter.

Good Samaritan shelter is one of the options where the homeless can go but Kirsten Cahoon, Director of Homeless Services for the shelter says this problem may get worse before it gets better.

“The housing crisis is a big reason why we’re seeing so many homeless people out on the streets and it’s something that we’re gonna continue to see for a while until the housing market changes a little bit,” she explained.

The United Way has a new program called “Home for Good” inside the library to help these folks out.

Liliana Ortiz does outreach with “Home for Good” five days a week. “I kinda see what the situation is with that person because everybody is different, everybody’s life is going different routes. A lot of people think homeless people are going through drug issues which is not even the case half the time,” Ortiz said.

Stacey Hamrick is one of the people Ortiz is helping get back on her feet. She’d like to see more people around Santa Maria have compassion for people experiencing homelessness.

“On Monday’s they have showers where you can go shower, on Tuesday’s they have where you can go wash your clothes for free but what are they supposed to the rest of the time? I used to take showers in the bathrooms here once in a while too,” Hamrick said.

Rocky Nartatez says he’d like more understanding as well, telling us: “People have no idea what it’s like as far as struggle. People say: “Oh I struggle this, I struggle that” – you wanna know struggle? Live one night on the street.. you’ll see what struggle is.”

Click here for the list of rules for the library.

Click here for info on the United Way and here for info on Good Samartian shelters.