A Home to the Homeless
Libraries offer refuge and support to those in need and help foster a new community approach to homelessness
By Ellyn Ruhlmann
Just
before 9 a.m. on a Tuesday in Madison, Wisconsin, people line up on the
corner outside Madison Public Library, waiting for the doors to open.
Some of them have spent the night on nearby street benches or on the
pavement near the building. They’re ready for a soft chair and dry air.
“First in, last to leave the library,” says Jane, describing herself
and her homeless community. “It’s our routine.” Jane, who prefers not to
give her last name, says she’s classified as chronically homeless.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development defines
a chronically homeless person as an unaccompanied individual with a
disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for one
year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness
in the last three years. More than 610,000 people are homeless in the
United States on any given night. Nearly two-thirds live in shelters or
transitional housing, and the rest are unsheltered.
Jane says she didn’t start coming to the library until she became
homeless. Now she’s drawn to it for many reasons; it’s one of the few
places she can go where it doesn’t matter what she wears or whether she
has money. She’s entitled to the same services and treatment as the
person standing next to her in a designer coat.
The American Library Association (ALA) maintains in its “Library Services to the Poor” policy statement
that it’s crucial for public libraries to recognize their role in
enabling poor people to participate fully in a democratic society. The
library has to serve as a uniquely egalitarian place. Moreover, library
staffers have a duty to look out for the needs of poor and homeless
patrons and strive to provide relevant services.
That’s a complex task for librarians who already face a number of challenges.
How do you make the public library a welcoming place for everyone
when not all library users (or even staff members) feel comfortable
around signs of homelessness? What if a homeless patron needs
professional services beyond the library’s capability to fulfill?
Madison Public Library and several other public libraries have come up
with practical, innovative solutions.
The library allure
According to Partners Ending Homelessness, there are three patterns
of homelessness. Situational homelessness can occur when someone loses a
job, gets evicted, or suffers a particular financial or health crisis.
Episodic homelessness differs in that it stems from patterns of behavior
and can have multiple causes, including depression and domestic
violence, and is more common among women and families. A third
group—chronically homeless people—comprises less than 18% of the total
homeless population.
Librarians who work with homeless populations should understand the
different types of homelessness, says Ryan Dowd, former director of the
Hesed House, a homeless shelter in Aurora, Illinois. Dowd says
chronically homeless people typically present the most challenges for
libraries. Homelessness for them doesn’t stem from poverty alone but
from poverty combined with the lack of relationships or support systems.
“If you think about the variety of issues that face the homeless, in
many ways they’re not connected to society,” says Jill Bourne, director
of San José (Calif.) Public Library. “The library may be the only place
where they can go to be connected. It can be a lifeline.”
“At the library, you can get on the computer and find out what’s
going on in the world,” says Jane in Madison. “If Obama’s going to
Zimbabwe, I know.” She also spends time online searching for jobs and
affordable housing. The library not only helps her connect with the
world at large but also helps her disconnect from aspects of her
immediate surroundings.
Most homeless people don’t sleep by themselves on the street,
according to Jane. They sleep in a community, often in the same spots,
and it’s never safe. “Here there are boundaries,” says Jane, pointing to
a computer pod at Madison Public Library. “Those people have their own
section of the table. That’s their own space. That’s gold.”
Other homeless patrons come to the library because they need support
services and aren’t sure where else to go. Nearly one-third of all
chronically homeless people suffer from a mental illness, and about half
face substance abuse problems, according to the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration.
In his work at the Aurora shelter, Dowd noticed a high incidence of
autism among homeless populations. Many people with autism spectrum
disorders experience sensory sensitivity, which may add to the appeal of
a library; they find a peaceful refuge from the noise and glare of the
street.
Day-to-day challenges
Chicago Public Library posts policies online that prohibit sleeping
and other behaviors sometimes associated with the homeless community.
These include loitering, panhandling, bathing in the bathrooms, carrying
in large or multiple bags, and offensive hygiene. Complaints from
patrons have prompted other libraries to adopt similar policies.
But those policies pose unique challenges to homeless people.
Homelessness is an exhausting lifestyle, says Dorothy Sterling, a
homeless Chicago Public Library patron. Those who live on the street
typically carry everything they own with them, and they’re afraid to
fall asleep for fear someone may steal their belongings. “Most of the
homeless, we walk all night,” she says. “Your body just shuts down. And I
haven’t found a library yet that will let you be when that happens.”
Patrick Molloy, director of government and public affairs at Chicago
Public Library, says the library enforces its policy against sleeping
because of safety concerns. “It’s difficult to know if something could
be wrong,” Molloy says. “The librarians will wake people up to ask if
they’re okay.” Unless the behavior is illegal, he says the library gives
patrons a second chance to follow library policies before asking them
to leave. Patrons are then welcome back the next day.
“We always want to be open and welcoming to all,” says Anne Haimes,
interim director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System in Georgia.
“However, we do need to make sure that everyone who comes in feels safe
and comfortable.” The challenge for libraries is finding that balance.
Haimes says for her library system, keeping a strong, flexible code of
conduct helps.
And success can hinge on the word “flexible.” Many homeless people
are victims of a shrinking social safety net, says Rene Heybach, senior
counsel at the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
Libraries need to address signs of homelessness in a nonstigmatizing
way, she says, and look for ways to “make room under the public tent.”
Heybach helped craft legislation for the Homeless Bill of Rights,
currently adopted into law in Connecticut, Illinois, and Rhode Island.
The bill takes aim at city ordinances that ban activities such as
sleeping and loitering in public spaces—activities inherent to
homelessness. Such laws criminalize the existence of homeless people,
according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
Among its protections, the bill states that homeless people cannot be
denied access to public spaces solely based on their housing status.
That’s a point to consider in regard to library policies, such as
restrictions against carry-in items. Because of their housing status,
homeless people may not have a place to store their bags and therefore
can’t enter a building.
The best way to ensure open access is to keep an open dialogue, says
San José’s Bourne. “Make it about sharing a space.” If a patron comes in
with an oversize item and it’s blocking the corridor, San José Public
Library trains its staff members to work the problem and not be too
rigid about rules. They’ll ask, “Could you possibly fit that under here
so people can get by?” she says.
Bourne says she’s also careful to ensure policies are broad enough to
implement across the library’s entire user base, which includes
university students. Students will often nod off while studying for
exams, making a ban on sleeping impractical. Unless staffers can enforce
policies consistently among all library patrons and not only the poor,
they risk profiling based on poverty.
“We used to have a set of policies that read like the Ten
Commandments,” says Bob Harris, recently retired director of the Helen
Plum Memorial Library in Lombard, Illinois. At the advice of a security
consultant, the library now sticks to one main rule: If you’re doing
something that interferes with someone else’s use of the library, it’s
not allowed. “Anything else? You’re probably okay,” says Harris. Unless
they’re snoring, dozers go undisturbed.
When patrons complain, it’s usually not the presence of homeless
people that bothers them, says Harris. “It’s the perception that they’re
dangerous.”
What libraries can do
Many public libraries are working to overcome these misconceptions
and break the public stigma of homelessness. It takes research,
networking, and some ingenuity.
Know your homeless population
The Annual Homeless Assessment Report
compiled by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development provides
statistics by state as well as local planning bodies. School districts
are a good source of information too, since they’re required to count
and report on the number of homeless students. Other places to gather
research include local food pantries, churches, community organizations
that target services to the poor, homeless shelters, and transitional
housing facilities.
The most knowledgeable source is, of course, homeless patrons already
in the library. Not everyone will want to talk, but those who do can
provide insight into why they visit and what additional services they
would like to see the library offer.
Form a provider web
While canvassing for information, libraries should look for potential
partnerships: service providers that can address the needs of their
particular community. A San José study found that 60% of the homeless
people in the city suffer from one or more disabling conditions. The
library doesn’t have staffers trained to handle those issues, so they
built relationships with agencies that do.
“Because libraries are the day shelter in a lot of cities, we have to
find a way to knit together services,” says Bourne. Libraries can take a
leading role in starting that conversation and building a consortium of
service providers vested in helping the homeless.
In Lombard, Helen Plum Memorial Library trustee Kris Johnson convened
several community forums at the library to discuss ongoing issues
relating to homelessness. Every Tuesday, the homeless shelter near the
library hosts a shelter night, and the neighborhood sees an influx of
homeless people. Many would wait in and around the library until the
shelter opened its doors at 7 p.m.
At the forum, the village president, board members, and
representatives from area churches and organizations talked about how to
improve the situation. Now, a staff of community volunteers hosts a
movie screening at the library before the shelter opens, serving popcorn
and cocoa donated by Johnson.
Bring resources in-house
Once, when homeless patrons needed help with personal problems like
addiction or domestic abuse, libraries could offer only a referral and
direct them someplace else. That’s not always effective, since many
homeless people suffer from low self-esteem and have difficulty
trusting, says Dowd. Other agencies may have failed them before, so they
could decide it’s not worth the risk.
But the public library is different. It already has the trust of the
homeless community, many of whom stay at the library all day. “It’s like
a home,” says Sterling. By bringing resources in-house, libraries can
help ensure homeless patrons have access to services critical to their
welfare.
In 2008, San Francisco Public Library became the nation’s first
public library to hire its own, full-time psychiatric social worker,
according to Michelle Jeffers, chief of community programs and
partnerships. Soon after the social worker started, the library hired
four health and safety advocates (HASAs), each of whom were formerly
homeless themselves.
HASAs help promote services to the poor, including a resource fair
that the library hosts in partnership with Project Homeless Connect.
Every month in the library’s auditorium, agencies set up booths offering
resources and services geared to the homeless, such as eyeglasses,
vaccines, shoes, and haircuts.
Public libraries in other cities, including San José, Madison,
Philadelphia, and Salt Lake City, also have social workers in-house. Z!
Haukeness from the Shine Initiative—a nonprofit based in Madison—keeps a
prominent profile in a glass room in the middle of Madison Public
Library, where he and a coworker spend 30 hours a week helping patrons
find housing and jobs and apply for food stamps. Some people come just
to talk through hardships, he says.
One hardship of homelessness, the inability to bathe, has caused
ongoing problems for public libraries. San Francisco Public Library now
has a possible solution: mobile showers. When a local nonprofit, Lava
Mae, began retrofitting former city buses with private showers for the
homeless, SFPL staffers lobbied to have one parked outside the central
library. Open to all, the free showers would include soap, shampoo, and
towels.
Lava Mae’s founders are looking to expand their model to other cities, according to the nonprofit’s website.
Create welcoming spaces
During the planning phases of Madison Public Library’s recent
building renovation, director Greg Mickells met with several social
service agencies to discuss how to make the library a more inviting and
functional space for all patrons, particularly Madison’s homeless
community.
The new facility features workspace for 10 different social agencies
like the Shine Initiative, as well as redesigned work areas for patrons.
Unlike computer banks where people sit in rows, the library’s work
areas look more like pods: clusters of three computer desks with
partitions spread throughout the library. This arrangement provides more
privacy—a valued commodity among homeless patrons.
Librarians can also expand their collections to include materials on
poverty and homelessness, and make sure everyone has access to checking
them out. ALA recommends removing restrictions to owning a library card.
“There are a lot of educated homeless people,” says Sterling. “We like
to read and to learn.” She adds that she arrives at the library as soon
as it opens to surf the web, and attends the library’s free seminars on
issues relating to consumer credit and the law.
Some libraries allow patrons to use a shelter address when applying
for a library card. About 2% of all the cards that Atlanta-Fulton Public
Library System issues are courtesy cards for people without a permanent
address, says Haimes. Of those, 95% go to homeless people.
Offer targeted programs
After learning about a program at the Dallas Public Library called “Coffee and Conversation,”
SFPL’s Jeffers says colleagues decided to try the idea. Homeless
patrons gather to share experiences and struggles and talk about why
they come to the library. An informal coffee klatch can help stir up
ideas for a host of other programs.
Another good source is ALA’s toolkit, “Extending Our Reach: Reducing Homelessness through Library Engagement.” The source contains a list of programs of interest to homeless people, such as mortgage or rental assistance, help applying for government benefits, and health programs.
Libraries like Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System also offer free
GED classes on-site that draw unemployed or underemployed people who may
be experiencing episodic homelessness. A report
from the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness shows nearly
50% of homeless parents are high school dropouts. Obtaining a GED can
offer the pathway to gainful employment, and for some, a way off the
street.
Train staff
“When you see a homeless person, you see the bags and the raggedy
coat, [but] you don’t always see the human,” says Harris of Lombard. “I
try to look directly into the person’s eyes.” He says he learned about
the importance of making eye contact and other tips from Dowd’s YouTube
video, “A Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness.” It’s now required viewing for all staffers at Helen Plum Memorial Library, which serves a large homeless population.
The video offers some insights into what it’s like to be homeless and
can help foster sensitivity toward related issues. Dowd recommends
treating homeless people no better or worse than anyone else; they don’t
mind rules so long as they’re applied fairly. “[The] catch is how
they’re enforced,” he says. Underpinning all his advice is one
principle: Show respect.
“People just don’t understand being a homeless person,” says Sterling. “If you respect them, they’ll respect you.”
That simple concept isn’t always simple in practice. Each person in
the homeless community has a story about how he or she got there. Some
of those stories include abuse, mental illness, and posttraumatic
stress. As a result, homeless people can often feel cast off from
society.
Libraries can work to change that. In addition to providing vital
resources, library staffers can engage their communities in better
understanding the issues surrounding homelessness. But they can’t do it
alone. Working with other advocates and social agencies, libraries can
create resource-rich spaces where homeless patrons feel welcome,
intellectually engaged, and connected with their communities.
