Service centers

The main San Francisco Public Library is near the Tenderloin neighborhood, which Frommer’s EasyGuide to San Francisco calls “a patch of poverty and blight where you should keep your wits about you.” It attracts many homeless persons, so at the end of 2008 the library hired social worker Leah Esguerra.

On a typical day, Esguerra walks through the building, engaging with people who might need her services. She helps connect patrons to housing and other resources and trains staff about homelessness and mental health issues. She also supervises Health and Safety Associates, often formerly homeless persons, who direct patrons to showers, laundry, shelters, clothing, and food.

Urban libraries are popular spots for homeless people to hang out during the day. But their open door policies can irritate other patrons who wonder, in the words of Larry Neal, president of the Public Library Association and director of a library system in suburban Detroit, whether the library is “just another shelter?” Some libraries are responding creatively to the issue.

Public health nurse Daniel Lopez wears a stethoscope around his neck as he roams around the main branch of the Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Ariz. Amber Mathewson, deputy director of strategic initiatives at the library, says Lopez will “walk up to people, ask them how they’re doing. If they engage in conversation, then sometimes he’ll ask if they would like their blood pressure checked.” Lopez is the lead library nurse, and about 15 other nurses now spend time in other Pima County libraries.

The library hired its first public health nurse in 2012 in response to concerns that patrons with “traumatic crisis episodes and behavioral health concerns” created “an unsafe and unwelcoming environment for patrons and staff.” Mathewson said the library staff would sometimes “have to call 911 just because people were out of control in behavior.”

Now library staff can call Lopez to check on patrons who appear drunk or disoriented or don’t seem to be breathing. He hands out hygiene products, socks, hats, and donated clothing. He helps people get health insurance and leads information sessions for staff. Sometimes he helps people find jobs.

Mathewson told of a man Lopez met who had sores on his feet. Lopez gave him socks and referred him to a clinic, but he also told him about the library’s job help program. When the man wrote a resumé and secured an interview, Lopez helped him find clothes and a free haircut. Mathewson said the man got the job as a department store manager.

In Nashville, reference librarian Liz Coleman said she was “freaked out” about the homeless population when she interviewed for her job 15 years ago. But getting to know the homeless who come to the downtown library has enriched her life: “We’re all the same. We’re all people. We all think the same things are funny. We all think the same things are sad.”

Last summer the downtown library remodeled its third floor, freeing up space where people from Metro Social Services and the Mental Health Cooperative now meet with patrons during the week. The library calendar lists mental health counseling and sessions on finding jobs and housing in addition to more traditional library activities. Coleman says social workers are doing the work they’d already be doing: “We’re just providing space where that can happen, really bringing the services to a lot of the folks who are already here and need the help.”

Coleman, who also heads up the library’s advisory committee on homelessness, said the mere act of offering services has built good will between homeless patrons and library staff. “We trust each other more,” Coleman said. “There are fewer behavioral issues.”

The Nashville Public Library recently updated its mission: “Inspire reading, advance learning, and connect our community.” Coleman believes a lot of people come to the library for the third purpose: community. “There is still a human desire to be in community, even as we’re somewhat more isolated by technology,” she said.

As public libraries become more like community centers or meeting spaces, they continue to be open to everyone. “I’ve known people walking through my doors that are millionaires if not multimillionaires,” said the Public Library Association’s Larry Neal. But he said his library in suburban Detroit also serves people who save money from bottle deposits to pay for using the copy machine.

Keeping an environment where everyone feels safe and comfortable can be challenging, Neal said, especially in areas with high levels of homelessness. So it’s important to set rules and apply them to everyone— whether a homeless person sleeping or a student dozing while studying: “A teenager using profanity at a computer is no less disturbing or disruptive than a person who pulls off his boots and, you know, knocks you over with the smell. So it’s just another aspect of a thing that we deal with every day.”

—Emily Scheie is a World Journalism Institute graduate