--- title: Why Libraries Are the Safest Place for Homeless People description: How to close the 'diaper gap,' why rising unemployment might be a good thing, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4280536/libraries-safe-place-homeless-people/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-04T16:01:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:10.586Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Libraries Are the Safest Place for Homeless People og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4280536/libraries-safe-place-homeless-people/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Libraries Are the Safest Place for Homeless People twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why Libraries Are the Safest Place for Homeless People by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 4, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 4, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Libraries are often the safest place for homeless people.**](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-library-is-often-the-safest-place-for-homeless-people-thats-why-this-one-hired-a-social-worker%5Fus%5F56fbf43ee4b083f5c6063b0d) By Eleanor Goldberg in Huffington Post **2\.** [**The rising unemployment rate might be good news.**](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-rising-unemployment-rate-is-good-news/) By Ben Casselman in FiveThirtyEight **3\.** [**How an internet retail startup and the White House teamed up to close the ‘diaper gap.’**](http://recode.net/2016/03/10/jet-com-and-the-white-house-want-to-slash-diaper-prices-for-low-income-families/) By Jason Del Rey in ReCode **4\.** [**Hundreds of thousands pre-ordered the new Tesla — and that could kill the company.**](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/31/tesla-s-model-3-could-destroy-elon-musk-s-company.html) By Edward Niedermeyer in the Daily Beast **5\.** [**Business schools are looking for ‘grand challenges.’ Here’s where to start.**](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/three-ways-assure-phil-knight-high-roi-stanford-judith-samuelson) By Judy Samuelson in LinkedIn  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4280536/libraries-safe-place-homeless-people/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4280536/libraries-safe-place-homeless-people/"},"headline":"Why Libraries Are the Safest Place for Homeless People","datePublished":"2016-04-04T16:01:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:10.586Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4280536/libraries-safe-place-homeless-people/","keywords":["Innovation","Unemployment","Tesla","Libraries"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4280536/libraries-safe-place-homeless-people/","name":"Why Libraries Are the Safest Place for Homeless People"}}]}] ```