Who Put the "Public" in Library, Anyway?

Are public libraries meant to be more "public" or more "library?" While some may complain about the prevalence of homeless people in public libraries, this is often an indicator that a deeper community issue exists.

Orlando blogger Dave Ballentine has taken issue with the prevalence of homeless people at his local public library. Or, as he put it, the "disgusting sights and smells staff and patrons must put up with there." He writes:

I cannot for the life of me understand how the City and the County continue to allow this facility to be used as an air conditioned homeless day care center for these bums to lounge about and sleep.

Mr. Ballentine's complaints- although a bit too provocative or perhaps ignorant for my tastes- represent a broader public sentiment. In fact, a Washington DC library survey found that one of the top complaints of library patrons was the preponderance of homeless people in the public library:

Here's what the library's Friends find so offensive about the homeless library users, borrowing from the report: the "lack of adequate hygiene," that library patrons feel unsafe among the homeless, and that "the reading rooms and tables are often occupied exclusively by homeless people and their possessions..."

Accordingly, the report seeks an end to "additional homeless programs offered in the library that are unrelated to core library functions."

Robin Diener, director of the DC Library Renaissance Project, says that the West End Library followed the report by doing what libraries around the country are doing when faced with this same issue: It put blinds on street-facing windows so that homeless people couldn't sit inside while watching their belongings; it broke up big groups of tables and chairs into smaller conglomerations so that homeless people couldn't congregate en masse as easily; and it allowed users only a little bit of time on the computers at a time.

Moving around furniture and installing window treatments in a library may help shuffle homeless people around a bit, but it will do little to solve the core problem. If a community notices a "homeless-in-the-library" problem, call me crazy, but this is probably an indication that this same community has a homelessness problem.

As Mr. Ballentine writes, there are some things so wrong, so unacceptable, we just have to put our foot down:

I know, I'm just an old grumpy guy who has the nerve to notice these things. Okay, think what you want. If I was a parent of grandparent getting ready to drop my child or grandchild off at this facility and saw this assemblage of people getting ready to go inside and spend the day, I'd keep driving. I wouldn't even want my wife to be inside there alone. There has to be a way to turn back this "breech" of common sense and make this library facility a a safe, wholesome, welcome, and secure facility for everyone again. It just takes more people to say "I'm tired of this, I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!" Just like the guy in the movie. Are there any real men left?

He's right: it's time to make our communities "safe, wholesome, welcome, and secure... for everyone again" by ensuring every person has a place to call home. Time to realize that removing homeless people from the library is only going to force them to move elsewhere. Time we focus our efforts on ensuring every person has access to healthcare, a job with a livable wage, and housing they can afford.

Time we said, "I'm tired of this, I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"