by: Ian Simpson
(Reuters) - George Brown, a homeless man in Washington, has a simple answer when
asked how often he uses a public library.
"Always. I have nowhere else to go," Brown, 65, said outside the U.S.
capital's modernist central library after a morning reading sociology books.
"When it's hot, you come here to stay out of the heat. When it's cold, you come
here to stay out of the cold."
Brown is among the hundreds of thousands of homeless people who have put the
almost 9,000 U.S. public libraries, the most of any country in the world, in the
forefront of the battle against homelessness.
Moving beyond their old-fashioned image as book custodians where librarians
shush people for talking too loud, libraries have evolved to serve as community
centers, staffed with social workers and offering programs from meals to job
counseling.
Homelessness is an especially acute issue for libraries as the United States
slowly emerges from the 2007-2009 recession and deals with stubborn poverty,
experts said.
Libraries are magnets for the homeless since they are public, free, centrally
located and quiet. They also are safe, a major draw given that 337 homeless
people have been killed in hate crimes in the last 15 years, according to the
National Coalition for the Homeless.
"(Libraries) are on the front line whether they want to or not," said Jeremy
Rosen, director of advocacy at the National Law Center on Homelessness and
Poverty, an advocacy group.
The upturn in homeless outreach is part of an overall 47 percent increase in
library programs from 2004 to 2011, according to a June report by the Institute
of Museum and Library Services.
OCCASIONAL COMPLAINTS
Libraries' openness is not without critics. Donald Root, head of the main
Philadelphia library, said he has received occasional complaints from patrons
about homeless people who are smelly, loud, asleep or who appear mentally ill.
Other library officials reported similar experiences.
In online comments in a Yelp review, San Francisco's main library drew
complaints from patrons about homeless people who were sleeping, bathing in
restrooms, made sexual comments or were monopolizing computer
terminals.
"Amazing library ruined by the army of homeless that come to sleep and shower
here," one patron wrote.
Libraries can have their own guidelines, like Washington's six-page rule book
barring alcohol, bare feet, oversize bags and an odor that can be smelled six
feet (two meters) away.
Rules for behavior have been influenced by a 1991 appeals court decision that
said libraries were limited public forums, allowing them to put limits on
patrons' behavior.
VARIETY OF PROGRAMS
About 610,000 Americans were homeless in January 2013, almost half of them in
big cities, according to a one-night head count by the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
Hundreds of programs to help the homeless have been set up in libraries
across the United States.
The Queens Library in New York City offers a summer reading club and is
developing an online application to help people find services.
Greensboro, North Carolina, libraries have offered haircuts, meals, blood
pressure screening, and job and business counseling, said Brigitte Blanton,
director of the city's libraries.
Philadelphia's central library, where scores of homeless people line up
before opening every day, features a cafe staffed by homeless people. The
homeless also police bathrooms to ensure that they are not used for bathing or
washing clothes.
Libraries in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington have hired social
workers.
"Someone told me before I started working here, 'Oh, librarians are just
social workers.' And I laughed about it, and it's true," said Jean Badalamenti,
the Washington libraries' social worker.
A Madison, Wisconsin, library, installed a parking lot for shopping carts and
other baggage.
"What some of the libraries are doing is phenomenal," said David Pirtle, who
was once homeless and now gives speeches for the National Coalition for the
Homeless.
He said libraries were more welcoming than a decade ago, when some sought to
limit access for the homeless. The homeless also are more willing to work with
librarians and security officers, Pirtle said.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott
Malone and Eric
Beech)
from: Reuters
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