Diaz, Cristina
Ruhlmann, E. (2014). A home to the homeless. American
Libraries, 45(11/12), 40–44. Retrieved from http://libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lls&AN=99206614&site=ehost-live&scope=site
The Article: “A Home
to the Homeless,” by Ellyn Ruhlmann
This article is about how libraries are a home to the
homeless, and how libraries can be more welcoming to the homeless population
that visit the library.
This article starts off by discussing different types of
homelessness. The article writes, “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.”
Chronic homelessness is described as an individual with a disability who has
been homeless for more than a year or has had at least four episodes of
homelessness in the last three years. It also discusses how the library has
become their lifeline in keeping them caught up with the world outside and
helps them get access to information on jobs and housing through use of
computers.
The main library discussed in this article was Madison,
Wisconsin’s Madison Public Library. They interviewed a chronically homeless
woman who says she never visited the library before she became homeless. Now,
she comes because it’s one of the few places that she can go in where it does
not matter if she has money, or the way she’s dressed. She has the same access
to services and treatment as any other person who visits the library.
The article also discusses how some of the library policies
can make it hard on the homeless population, like prohibiting sleeping bags and
large/multiple bags, loitering, offensive hygiene, etc. It goes on to describe
ways we can be flexible in this, such as asking them to put their bags
somewhere where it won’t get in the way. Some libraries prohibit sleeping in
the library. This policy is harder to be flexible, because Librarians need to
be sure there isn’t a health concern. So, the article goes on to say that if
everything seems fine, allowing patrons to sleep should be fine, as long as
they are not snoring, and disturbing other patrons.
The last bit that the article discusses is ways that the
library can help the homeless population. Talking to community and churches who
deal with the homeless, and finding out what they’d need, all the while looking
for potential partnerships. How it used to be that librarians would have to
send patrons seeking help to other places, but now, by bringing resources to
the library, we can ensure that the “homeless patrons have access to services
critical to their welfare.” The article discusses ways that other libraries
have done this, like hiring a psychiatric social worker, or health and safety
advocates (HASAs) that “help promote services to the poor, including a resource
fair that the library hosts in partnership with Project Homeless Connect.”
All in all, I feel that
this article does a great job in describing ways that the library has become a
lifeline for the homeless patrons that visit the library, and what the library
can do to become more welcoming to them. We are now more than just a source of
information to those walking through our doors, but we are also, in many ways,
their home.
