The Road Home homeless shelter in Salt Lake City is doing a great job of keeping people warm at night, but it fails to see the problems it causes by requiring everyone to exit the shelter by 6:45 a.m. [“I Know I’m Invisible,” Feb. 14, City Weekly].

Many have no way to keep warm except to ride the free transit system or to loiter in fast-food restaurants for two hours.

Consequently, several fast-food restaurants have had to hire special security guards to keep customers from loitering more than 30 minutes while drinking coffee—which might be a violation of their civil rights.

Still, many have no cash for coffee.

So, maybe city planners should rethink the policy of forcing homeless people to vacate the shelters in extremely cold weather at unreasonable hours, since many spend most of their days in the city library just to keep warm.

JAMES H. ARMISTEAD
Age 80 and homeless
Salt Lake City