Libraries welcome homeless to 'community living rooms'

by: Judy Keen

Public libraries are becoming more hospitable to the homeless by hosting social-service agencies, organizing events such as book clubs and movie matinees and redesigning their facilities.


Instead of trying to deter the homeless from congregating, libraries welcome them and rely on codes of conduct that address issues such as hygiene and behavior to prevent their presence from intimidating other patrons, says Audra Caplan, president of the Public Library Association.

The homeless "go to libraries because they don't have anywhere else to go, and that's a shame," she says.

A federal court ruled in 1992 that the First Amendment gives everyone the right of access to information, but libraries can enforce reasonable rules, says Mary Minow, a library law consultant.

Accommodating the homeless is a key part of a $29.5 million redevelopment of the Central Library in Madison, Wis., that begins next year, Library Board President Tripp Widder says.

Architect Jeffrey Scherer, who devised the Madison renovation plan, says incorporating the needs of the homeless is a recent trend. In Madison, seating will be rearranged to suit varying preferences of homeless patrons and restrooms will be moved within staff sightlines.

Elsewhere:

•At Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina, Angela Craig helped start a book club for the homeless, organized tours that include explanations of library rules by security staff and recruited tutors to teach the homeless to use computers.

•In Florida, the Alachua County Library District hosts Monday movies — sometimes with popcorn — for the homeless, keeps a book collection at a shelter and opened a social-service center at a branch, library director Sol Hirsch says.

•In San Francisco, social worker Leah Esguerra works full-time at the downtown library to handle referrals of homeless patrons to social-service agencies. "Libraries are becoming our community living rooms," City Librarian Luis Herrera says.

Lubbock, Texas, meanwhile, is debating ways to discourage the homeless from gathering outside city buildings, including Mahon Public Library.

Trash outside the library prompted some vendors to warn they might stop deliveries. A proposed rule would bar people from the grounds overnight.

from: USA Today