America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelters

[marmar]

From TomDispatch, via AlterNet:


America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelters

By Chip Ward, Tomdispatch.com. Posted April 2, 2007.



A dirty little secret about America is that public libraries have become de facto daytime shelters for the nation's street people while librarians are increasingly our unofficial social workers for the homeless and mentally disturbed.

Ophelia sits by the fireplace and mumbles softly, smiling and gesturing at no one in particular. She gazes out the large window through the two pairs of glasses she wears, one windshield-sized pair over a smaller set perched precariously on her small nose. Perhaps four lenses help her see the invisible other she is addressing. When her "nobody there" conversation disturbs the reader seated beside her, Ophelia turns, chuckles at the woman's discomfort, and explains, "Don't mind me, I'm dead. It's okay. I've been dead for some time now." She pauses, then adds reassuringly, "It's not so bad. You get used to it." Not at all reassured, the woman gathers her belongings and moves quickly away. Ophelia shrugs. Verbal communication is tricky. She prefers telepathy, but that's hard to do since the rest of us, she informs me, "don't know the rules."

Margi is not so mellow. The "fucking Jews" have been at it again she tells a staff member who asks her for the umpteenth time to settle down and stop talking that way. "Communist!" she hisses and storms off, muttering that she will "sue the boss." Margi is at least 70 and her behavior shows obvious signs of dementia. The staff's efforts to find out her background are met with angry diatribes and insults. She clutches a book on German grammar and another on submarines that she reads upside down to "make things right."

Mick is having a bad day, too. He hasn't misbehaved but sits and stares, glassy-eyed. This is usually the prelude to a seizure. His seizures are easier to deal with than Bob's, for instance, because he usually has them while seated and so rarely hits his head and bleeds, nor does he ever soil his pants. Bob tends to pace restlessly all day and is often on the move when, without warning, his seizures strike. The last time he went down, he cut his head. The staff has learned to turn him over quickly after he hits the floor , so that his urine does not stain the carpet.
...(snip)...

Ophelia is not so far off after all -- in a sense she is dead and has been for some time. Hers is a kind of social death from shunning. She is neglected, avoided, ignored, denied, overlooked, feared, detested, pitied, and dismissed. She exists alone in a kind of social purgatory. She waits in the library, day after day, gazing at us through multiple lenses and mumbling to her invisible friends. She does not expect to be rescued or redeemed. She is, as she says, "used to it."

She is our shame. What do you think about a culture that abandons suffering people and expects them to fend for themselves on the street, then criminalizes them for expressing the symptoms of illnesses they cannot control? We pay lip service to this tragedy -- then look away fast. As a library administrator, I hear the public express annoyance more often than not: "What are they doing in here?" "Can't you control them?" Annoyance is the cousin of arrogance, not shame.

We will let Ophelia and the others stay with us and we will be firm but kind. We will wait for America to wake up and deal with its Ophelias directly, deliberately, and compassionately. In the meantime, our patrons will continue to complain about her and the others who seek shelter with us. Yes, we know, we say to them; we hear you loud and clear. Be patient, please, we are doing the best we can. Are you? ......

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/50023/

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. And "Fahrenheit 451" comes a bit closer to reality

:cry:

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Wasn't that about book burning?

Sorry I don't see the connection.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. "F-451" was about anti-literacy and ignorance

Book burning was only a tool for enforcing the government's position against literacy.

By allowing libraries to become homeless shelters and effectively forcing library employees to become therapists, nurses, mental health practitioners and baby-sitters, the government drives off the people libraries are supposed to be serving. As library patronage declines and problems associated with the concentration of homeless people increases (sleeping, lack of hygiene, people using the library bathrooms to improve their hygiene, etc.,) it becomes easier to rationalize just shutting the libraries down altogether.

I mean, you can't borrow anti-Talibangelical books from the library if their aren't any libraries.

[Benhurst]

2. The World's Only Superpower

and Third World Dump.

[nealmhughes]

3. This "problem" is compounded by the upper class and middle class board members who govern libraries

in this country, by and large. I have been collecting anecdotes and news reports for an academic article on homeless access limitations in pulbicly funded institutions for over a year.

The disconnect is astonishing: "Your presence offends my nose" or "Mommy, why is that woman bathing in the sink when I went potty?" get a rapid response from the astonished staff that they do have rules in place, that they have a right to use the library, and that as long as they are not disruptive or doing something illegal, then what are they to do, their BAs and BSs are in the arts and sciences and their MLIS in library and information science, not social work. Which leads to a confrontation with the board, who then institutes rules such as "no staring" and "no packages larger than X by Y" and no washing of feet in public restrooms.

One thing I collected was the minutes of a medium sized California city's library board meeting. The director assured the board that the "homeless were under control in the city by the police and that as the weather was turning colder, they would soon be gone out of the city." Then the board turned the rest of the meeting to what was important: their annual black tie Xmas Gala!

The library is not full of danger from delusional people, it is filled with people with people, citizens, of every stripe and variety, including the mentally ill and the homeless.

The loosing of the mentally ill upon the streets with supposed "benefits" which they are unable to find because of their delusions, drug and alcohol problems, etc. and resultant homelessness is the secret of every American city. They are dumped after short term treatment and given complicated instructions for obtaining SSDI, SSA, etc. and then promptly lose their paperwork, their prescriptions, their meds, etc. leaving them afoot in the downtown areas, where the libraries happen to exist.

Vancouver is one of the few cities that is trying to build a bridge between librarians and social services in that city, with drop in centers for people to access social services, laundry and bathing facilities, and a warm, dry place to use computers/books/periodicals and attempt to have at least one daily place in which a hot meal and clean clothing is guaranteed.

Obviously, the homeless are the "undeserving poor," while the women seeking shelter with their families in battered women's shelters are the "deserving." On paper, both subsets are equal: traumatized, no home and no job. Oh, but the difference, one subset is "crazy or shiftless or criminal" while the other is classed as "victims."

Actually, both are victims of a heartless megacapitalist root hog or die neoliberal mentality, a neo-Tudor "whipping from parish to parish until they reach their birthplace" all-but-reborn, only in that they are set out of the mental homes and onto the streets and eventually the libraries.

If Brittany and Trey are exposed to reality in the library, then STFU and get in touch with your city, county, and state and federal politicians and demand that there be justice be done for the lowest amongst us.

Besides, the odds are high that Brit and Trey rarely go downtown. They get their library-provided baby sitting at the branch libraries, far from the realities of the center city.

As a librarian, I am not a social worker, I am not a cop, I am not a politician, I am not a soup kitchen nor a minister. I am human and care about everyone whom I serve and wish only that each and every one who enters my doors be healthy and get the service that my ethics require me to provide, bank account or address or lack thereof be damned.

And I wish that instead of bitching at the librarians, the users start doing something at the local level and then upwards until the homeless problem is solved in this country, and not a means test for use in the public forum.

[redacted]

12. Stanford said it had to close their undergrad library to the public because

Palo Alto's homeless population was sleeping in the stacks. So, one of the university's few resources open to the public also became unavailable. And this was in the 80's, before things got really bad for the homeless.

[raccoon]

6. K&R. nt

[1monster]

7. At one time, and not so long ago, people who had an I.Q. of 85 or lower

were considered mentally retarded and entitled to social services and financial help.

Miraculously, with the stroke of a pen, thousands and thousands of these retarded people were "cured" of their retardation. Thenceforth, only those with I.Q.s of 69 and lower were considered retarded.

I know this because I spent a whole summer trying to get help for a multi-handicapped boy of 18. His I.Q had risen from 74 at eleven years old to 81 at fifteen, and then to 91 at eighteen. However, his many handicaps, including hearing impairment, what later was determined to be Ausperger's Syndrome (not even a diagnosis in THIS country until 1996), early neglect by his mother (at fifteen, his communication skills were those of a preschooler), and failure to thrive (getting that kid to eat was a nightmare--even at thirty years old he still weighs only 84 pounds), caused serious delays and permanent inablilities in reasoning and mental maturity (At thirty, his mental/emotional maturity level is somewhere in the (well-behaved) middle school range.

The aggregate effect of all of his handicapps made him less functional than those who are officially retarded.

Even with all those problems, there was no help available in either the government or private forums.

The federal and state programs were not interested as soon as they learned that his I.Q. was above 69. The private programs for the deaf and hearing impaired were not set up to deal with problems other than deafness and hearing impairment.

[jwirr]

8. Some of these people you describe are eligible for Social Security

and other government services: 70 year old woman, men with seizures and they are of the age for nursing home or other facilities and/or waivered services. Librarians should be taught the need for giving referrals.

What state was this travesty in?

I am a retired social worker and I have actually seen this happening in our local libraries but in our town they live in group homes or nursing homes and are free to use the library just as we do. One gentleman is a vet who lives in a boarding house. Many in our town see him muttering as he walks the streets and enters stores. He is left alone because he really is to be pitied not feared.

Here this visibility is part of the community based services that have replaced institutions. My daughter's activity center takes three or four people to the library as part of the community recreation section of their individual service plans. They also go to restaurants, ball games, museums and other fun events in the community.

[grasswire]

9. thanks to all in helping professions on this thread

librarians, social workers -- thanks.

And shame on those who vote Republican.

[roguevalley]

10. my mom had lots of these poor souls in her library. one guy used

to come in and photocopy money, coins and bills and talk to himself. I used to come down when the library was being closed so the ladies and mom wouldn't do it by themselves. They were always enormously kind and there was only once or twice in 25 years that there was trouble. America will
be judged in history by how we treated these people and animals. Whatever you do for the least of
me, you do also for me, if I may paraphrase.

[earth mom]

11. This is happening at our local library and it is so sad.

Coincidentally, just the other day I read the book "Without a Net" Middle Class and Homeless (with Kids) in America: My Story by Michelle Kennedy. It's a must read because it could happen to any of us. :(

[qwlauren35]

13. I knew; it just didn't register.

My mom works at a library, and talks about the fact that no one is ever turned away - because it's a public library. She also mentioned that no one can be stopped from looking at pornographic images on the Internet with children walking by.

Given that we can't get the country to agree on funding for health care, there's no way that our country will foot the bill for day shelters for the mentally ill.

Oh, but wait, Building 18 at Walter Reed is about to be vacated.... right?

:sarcasm: