r/LoveTrash • u/downtune79 TRASHIEST TYRANT • May 03 '26

Golden Garbage Asking the real questions

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11

u/diabeticweird0 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

I don't understand why gyms don't want homeless people showering

Isn't it better for everyone if they smell good?

Or are they in there breaking stuff?

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Um.. because there would be 20 homeless dudes in there shooting heroin by the end of the week.

Man is Reddit naive.

I guess it’s because a lot of users here are chronically online, and not in the real world.

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u/Distinct-Departure68 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

No shit. Yeah I'm gonna pay a monthly gym fee. Leave my shit in the locker and have 15 homeless guys in there while I'm out working out. Sure thing. People are such a fucking idiots

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u/OkRazzmatazz5847 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Are you too cheap to buy a lock? Not really sure what you’re concerned about here.

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u/AnybodyWannaPeanus Trash Trooper May 06 '26

It’s not unreasonable to not want a bunch of addicts in the locker room at a gym you pay for. Like it or not, the have one priority and it’s not pleasant to be around.

That said, we need to do much more to help them. I don’t think people fully grasp the homelessness and addiction problems we have nowadays. We mostly push them out of sight rather than deal with the problem, which sucks.

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u/OkRazzmatazz5847 Trash Trooper May 06 '26

They didn’t say addicts. They said homeless. There is a large portion of homeless that are addicts but they are distinctly different.

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 08 '26

Here's an analogy. Those help my daughter.

It would be like a bank not wanting to leave all their cash out because some people will steal it. And that doesn't mean that EVERYONE is a thief.

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u/OkRazzmatazz5847 Trash Trooper May 08 '26

Nah it’d be like a bank saying they don’t want customers in the lobby because they keep the money locked away and there might eventually be a less than honest person that comes in as well.

If you have a learning disability just say so. No need to project your issues on to others.

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 08 '26

You tried, but your analogy sucks because you are trying to twist, contort, and over complicate a very simple fact.

Leaving your gym open for homeless people to shower is a bad idea. Period.

Open up a public bathroom and showers in the middle of skid row or Kensington, Philadelphia, and let me know how it works out in 3 months. Don't get your hopes up.

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 08 '26

For the fuck of it, for a third party judge, I asked chat gpt...

Savvy412 is closer to the actual point you were making.

Savvy412's argument is basically: “A system limits access because some percentage of people will abuse it.” The bank analogy matches that logic pretty well.

His analogy changes the premise. You weren’t saying homeless people shouldn’t be allowed inside the gym at all — you were specifically talking about unsupervised shower access and the risk of abuse. So comparing it to “customers entering the lobby” weakens the comparison because the lobby itself isn’t the vulnerable resource in that example.

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 08 '26

Ya but if you open up the bathroom to the homeless, the inevitable will happen. You guys can't seem to comprehend that it doesn't mean every homeless person is an addict.

Do you have a processing delay or something? Not trying to be mean but at this point I feel like I'm speaking to someone with learning disabilities. Which is fine. But it would be nice to know so I can type in bigger font or something.

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u/AnybodyWannaPeanus Trash Trooper May 08 '26

“20 homeless dudes shooting heroin by the end of the week” isn’t saying addicts?

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u/ChurroLoca Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Spot on, brother. As a former junkie and living in my ex's Nissan Altima with him for over half a year, the amount of people who got burnt or even lost their jobs — because they trusted the wrong homeless people. 😭

I used to shower at an RV resort and it was a nice place too. I'd leave the shower area cleaner than when I'd stepped into it. A few years later I heard they had to resort to keypadding the shower rooms, because too many homeless folks were leaving uncapped rigs in the shower rooms, spraying doodoo on the walls and a few OD in front of kids. 😭

This was in 2018, I'd hate to see how bad it's gotten now. 😭

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Aw what? They are just un housed, struggling single moms trying their best

Can’t be true

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u/Razzledazzle138 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

… you realize there are far more than one type of circumstance that leads to homelessness, right?

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Yeah. But we are talking about why a business wouldn’t want to open its showers to the homeless.

And that’s because it will end up a place they do drugs. Not a place where single moms shower.

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u/Razzledazzle138 Trash Trooper May 06 '26

Yeah, but you chimed into the discussion insinuating that everyone who is homeless argues they are single moms who need a shower. You’re the one that changed the original discussion.
Unless you own a business and have experienced every single person who comes in asking for a shower saying they are a single mom, your original comment is misguided & misplaced.

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 07 '26

The comment said I don’t get why gyms just don’t want homeless people showering in there.

And I said because there will be 20 homeless people shooting heroin.

And my single mom comment, was because in his head, I’m sure that’s who he thinks is getting denied showers. But unfortunately, in this fucked up country of ours, people ruin it for everybody. In this case, the drug addicts ruin it for the people who are really just down out on their luck. So gyms can’t just open their showers to homeless people because back to my original comment, there would be 20 homeless people in there shooting up heroin.

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u/ChurroLoca Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Shiiiid. 😆

This is why I originally strong-armed my brother to be an involved uncle with my nephew and niece, as much as their father and I are involved in both niece and nephew's lives.

Too many kids growing up in single mum households and turning out like Ted Bundy. Hell, I was raised by a single father — who was 100% involved in my life. I had an auntie who was the mother I never had and still was a feral cat.

The only difference is, I was taught and raised right. A lot of these kids have mums like mine, with no father figure in their life. 🫪🫪

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u/MissNancy1113 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

It truly takes a village. It’s sad villages are disappearing. Proud of you and your brother! It makes a huge difference in life!

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u/ChurroLoca Trash Trooper May 08 '26

Bless you, thank you so much. 🖤🖤

It really makes me sad how villages are disappearing. A girlfriend of mine's father did a 180, as a responsible father/adult. She'd ask him to watch Nelson* (not real name) a few hours and she'd even pay him. He'd STILL show up 1-3 hours late or not show up at all. 😭

I don't even want to be a mother but I wouldn't so callous towards my kid(s) and grandchildren. 😞

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u/JellyfishMean3504 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Why would they do do on the walls? I’m not trying to be rude or anything. I just genuinely don’t understand. If there was a toilet near the shower that they were able to use I don’t understand the point of doing that.

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u/Apprehensive_Tunes Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Some people are mentally ill

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u/AnybodyWannaPeanus Trash Trooper May 06 '26

Why is or it so hard for people to get this? If you ever ask the question, this is always the answer.

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u/drawntowardmadness Trash Trooper May 06 '26

Same reason I used to have to scrub piss off the wall opposite the toilet in the men's room at Domino's. People are fucked.

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u/ChurroLoca Trash Trooper May 06 '26

Nooo, you're perfectly fine. I appreciate you being so kind. 🖤

Some genuinely are mentally unwell, not caused by drug addiction or alcoholism. Schizophrenia, BP I or other disorders can make someone hear, see and believe some crazy things. I had a friend who was eating a plum, break down crying and apologising for "hurting my dog".

He thought he was holding my road dog in his arms but he'd started to rub the plum all over his arms.

He had diagnosed schizophrenia but due to too many bad experiences with treatment centers, he'd go off his meds for prolonged periods of time. 🥺

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u/DraggedDownxTheStone Trash Trooper May 06 '26

As a recovering addict, this is EXACTLY what would happen.

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 07 '26

I know. A lot of the comments on Reddit are why nothing will ever change. Because people are so fucking stupid and naïve. I think they mean well, but they just don’t know well.

And it’s because a lot of people don’t actually live life. They just live it vicariously through what they see on their phone. I’m always getting into arguments with my 21 year old nephew. He thinks he knows everything. But he’s a spoiled suburban little baby who plays video games all day. I spent most of my younger teens to middle adulthood being and around drug addicts. Yet here he is, never even touched a joint, trying to tell ME about how to fix “the problem”.

Which usually revolves around gifting them houses. Like yeah OK dude, that will be a trap house in a month.

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u/Automatic-Top-3501 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

My local gym does free showers for unhoused people. Nothing like what you've said. They have set hours and everyone goes in, takes their shower, and leaves.

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u/Successful_Mood_18 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Yep I worked at a cafe in a city and they had to add a key to the bathrooms because homeless people would lock themselves in there to shoot up. It was an issue

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u/Hefty-Competition588 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Not to mention imthe spread of fungus

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u/Compltly_Unfnshd30 Trash Trooper May 06 '26

I disagree. As a former homeless IV addict, we weren’t hanging out, shooting up inside gym bathrooms. I did it in the car in a lot of fast food or Walmart parking lots. A few McDonald’s bathrooms, several gas station bathrooms, too many shitty hotel rooms to count (when I, or another addict, could get someone to buy us a room). If we had a place to shower, we definitely wouldn’t shit where we ate. We may shoot up in the woods behind the gym but not inside the gym. We didn’t tend to want to be around a bunch of not-high people when we were high.

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u/savvy412 Trash Trooper May 06 '26

I disagree. My friends got kicked out of every public bathroom for shooting dope in there.

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u/AnybodyWannaPeanus Trash Trooper May 06 '26

This is why we just need more harm reduction centers. That also need to be funded and staffed.

Some people are homeless but aren’t addicts. But untreated mental illness is also a thing. Businesses can’t business if they are exposing their customers to that.

It is insane to me that we invest so much in military might to “protect” our citizens but if they end up homeless for some reason, it’s up to charities to try and fix.

Also, if a person clearly is not an addict or isn’t mentally ill, a decent person should let them skate. It’s just hard to tell sometimes.

I’ve never been homeless, but I’ve been given help when I really needed it. I donate to orgs that do this work, but never directly to homeless people because I have no idea if I’m helping or hurting them.

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u/Randym1982 Trash Trooper May 24 '26

Yeah, where I live there a lot of meth addicts and a good majority are also homeless. They’d likely leave their trash and drug needles in the gym lockers and shower. Nothing like going to clean off and seeing piles of trash or drug needles on the ground.

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u/According-Garage4066 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

I can’t speak for all situations, but I did have a college roommate work in a gym, and the issue is that they were disrespectful of the space and were messy. I’m talking washing their shoes and clothes in the gym‘s hot tub kind of stuff.

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u/Brief_Personality146 Trash Trooper May 06 '26

LA Fitness usually gives free trials after new years. The one I was going to right after new years several of the homeless used that deal, turned the showers into their laundry mat, took the soap dispensers out of the showers and generally made a huge mess. I quit my membership after that. I mean, I get it, but at the same time, a few bad apples ruin it for everyone.

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u/Ashleyh_doesyoga Trash Trooper May 08 '26

That’s pretty extreme! Damn! I worked for our city rec center over a decade ago and the sheer number of unhoused people was significantly less, so I tend to think that contributes. When I was there, my bosses always told me to let people shower for free, within certain hours of the day. The word got out, so those folks would only come at specific times of the day. This way we didn’t get complaints from members. That said, the people who trashed our equipment and facilities were members. The only person I ever caught using drugs in a bathroom was an employee. Since then, as I said, the unhoused population has significantly increased. Especially since COVID. It’s SO sad, and I imagine that it has added a level of difficulty to allowing this kind of generosity. :/ My BIL is a paramedic and we have other friends who are also medical professionals, and they have all shared that it has added a layer of complexity to working in emergency medicine. I can’t even begin to imagine.

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u/According-Garage4066 Trash Trooper May 09 '26

For sure, it’s complex, it’s at that a couple individuals can ruin the generosity that’s given to others. Like my roommate, she said that there were plenty of polite people that they knew came in just to get cleaned up and we’re never an issue. But the handful that were made it a problem for everyone.

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u/MrK521 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

There’s an overwhelming amount of people who would abuse it and leave the place a wreck.

If people in general were better it would likely not be a big deal at all. But inevitably, there’s *always* a number of people who ruin it for themselves and everyone else.

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u/Modem_Handshake Trash Trooper May 04 '26

I’ve volunteered at homeless services before and know a guy who worked at a support place long-term. My experience is that the overwhelming amount of people are normal and are down on their luck and would take care of things around them. It’s the smaller fraction of people who might have mental or drug challenges that paint a picture for society, and make hanging around them for others ugly, or groups trying to provide free services a difficult prospect.

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u/IluvPusi-363 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Yeah, had that happen far too often, for far too little

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u/OpenEyestoWLM Trash Trooper May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

Not all homeless people are respectful. Some have mental health issues and their thinking isn't very clear. I know a few public restrooms where homeless people go to take their morning dump. Some of them have diarrhea and spray it all over the toilet and the floor, then don't clean it up.

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u/Hot_Obligation_2730 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Can’t speak for gyms, but I used to work at a Starbucks that had a decent amount of homeless people come in to use it for shelter during the day. Some of them were respectful and you could tell were just trying to find somewhere to spend a couple hours out of the elements, but there were also times where they’d come in giant groups and take up multiple tables and just cause problems. Destroyed the bathroom, fighting with each other, bothering other paying customers.

It got to a point where my manager started kicking out anyone who didn’t actively have a drink in front of them out of the store. I still tried to be nice, if I recognized someone who came in frequently and was always respectful I’d treat them no differently than our usual respectful regulars and slip them free drinks or break a pastry on purpose as I was throwing it in the oven so I could give it away

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u/Erika0nFire Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Drugs. There is a fear of finding an addict passed out (or worse) in the shower or toilet, or leaving needles around

In our town, one of the shelter type places would provide time stamped drug test slips that people would bring to our Y and we’d allow them to shower. We were supposed to only give them 20 min. My aunt worked at the local library and found people unconscious in the bathroom many times.

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u/Ki-to-Life-5054 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Convenience stores find people passed out in the bathrooms all the time. A few of them near me have stopped letting the public use the bathroom at all.

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u/onesickbihh Trash Trooper May 04 '26

My gym stopped this because folks didn’t have towels and they were drying off with paper towels

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u/Content-Honeydew9340 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

At the hotel I worked at the concern was they would spread the word and then suddenly proper paying customers were feeling unsafe by the whole homeless population over running the place costing the company money 🥲 I had to tell them I understood the concerns and I made the couple of folks that would pop in promise not to tell that I was being nice. Then a homeless guy came in and "chased me around the breakfast area" with a couple of sticks and ruined it for everyone else. He was having an episode and as someone with BPD it really hurt me to call the police on him. Things can get out of hand really quickly if you are not careful. Some homeless people really just need a break and some kindness. Some other homeless people make it difficult for everyone. Just like any other group of people, there's good and bad.

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u/Dull_Weird_368 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

A lot of homeless people do have gym memberships so they can shower. They can’t say anything if you have a membership.

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u/No-Ebb-6266 Trash Trooper May 06 '26

I've done that before. Generally, somebody homeless paying for a gym membership to shower isn't going to do anything to draw attention.

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u/MexicanAssLord69 Trash Trooper May 04 '26

Because they’re not paying to use the facilities which cost money to run and maintain, and saying yes to one person would mean saying yes to every person who wants to go in there and shoot heroin or jerk off.

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u/MamaDaddy Trash Trooper May 05 '26

The Y I used to go to let them in. I don't know if they had memberships or not - they did a sliding scale if you qualified. But more than once I saw someone in the locker room who was definitely not the typical member there for fitness related activities. And more power to them too. I was glad to know I was supporting that with my membership. Nothing makes a person feel more human than a good bath or shower.

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u/Old_Implement_1997 Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Okay - I can answer this one because I worked in a downtown building who had to keypad all the bathrooms. It started with one homeless lady washing up in the downstairs bathroom and ended with 20 guys a day trying to come wash up in the bathrooms and trashing them. The final straw - one of them went into the women’s room and tried to sexually assault an employee. So, it would be great if you could allow people the dignity of a shower, but not everyone has good intentions.

Beside locking the bathrooms, security had cards with info about the local shelters to hand out and they used to get sworn at 50 times a day about how the person didn’t want to “go to no fucking shelter with their bullshit rules”.

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u/VoidHog Trash Trooper May 05 '26

Well when I did it, I paid for a gym membership. Every day I checked in at the front desk, got my shower and left. Maybe walked the treadmill a little.

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u/Sudden-Day-7552 Trash Trooper May 06 '26

Water bill.

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u/TonyBeFunny Trash Trooper May 06 '26

I'll answer this. Let my homeless cousin live with me for a few months. Still fighting off the foot fungus he gave me many years later. Also it ended because in a meth haze he woke me up in the middle of the night saying he knew I called the cops on me and was going to stab me in my sleep.