“I witnessed several women .... with their children straight up turn the other way and refuse to use the elevator because of how many homeless men were trying to get on it.”
Seattle's downtown library, worth $165 million, has been revealed to be overrun with the homeless and others high on drugs as the city is preparing to revamp the library system with a $480 million budget increase.
Turning Point USA Frontlines' reporter Savanah Hernandez documented the status of Seattle's downtown library, where it was found to be overrun with people who were homeless, others on drugs, and the facilities had fentanyl test strips as well as injectable Narcan with syringes that would be openly available for anyone, including curious children.
https://twitter.com/Savsays/status/2085459006185779399?s=20
The library, which is the largest in the entire state of Washington, had foul odors emanating from places such as the bathroom and other locations where vagrants were setting up shop. Hernandez reported that rats are often found in the area because of the trash that piles up around the library.
"People state they've been harassed by the homeless here, and even the restrooms are unusable due to the homeless utilizing them to bathe, or in some cases, shoot up drugs," Hernandez said in the video report.
"I did a walkthrough of this library myself, and I witnessed several women, especially women with their children, straight up turn the other way and refuse to use the elevator because of how many homeless men were trying to get on it, or straight up turn around and walk the opposite direction because somebody was having some type of drug-induced psychosis," she added.
Hernandez identified and filmed syringes that were easily accessible with injectable Narcan at the library, where fentanyl test strips were also readily available.
"These objects can be found on a table and they are very accessible, so a curious child could potentially come and pick this up very easily at the Seattle Downtown Public Library," Hernandez said.
She added that there is an upcoming property tax increase that is expected to raise around $480 million for maintenance and security for the downtown as well as other libraries. One of the costs, Hernandez reported, is expected to be $300 million just for the windows in the downtown library, as only one company in Italy makes the windows that were designed for the library. There are 10,000 windows needing to be replaced, and they each cost $30,000.
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