Homeless at the library

[Teacher Terry]

I have no clue if they do or not. I haven’t been in one for over 20 years.

[libby]

Why do you think libraries do not have such lists?

Because handing out social service info should not be part of a librarians job that's why.

[iris lilies]

Because handing out social service info should not be part of a librarians job that's why.

Of course it is their job, it is directory type information they are providing.


A library patron comes up to the reference desk and asks: I need to know where are some Italian restaurants downtown here, I am staying at the Adams Mark Hotel downtown.

A library patron comes up to the reference desk and asks: can you help me find a car rental place near here?

A library patron comes up to the reference desk and asks:Can you point me to the nearest overnight shelter here?

A library patron comes up to the reference desk and asks: where is the food stamp application office downtown?


All of these are common questions answered by library staff from directory publications that are commonly held in library collections, and some of these questions are about social services organizations.

Here is what is NOT the librarian’s job: a person is slumped over in his chair, muttering to himself, drooling, unresponsive to the librarian’s question of “ are you OK sir?” The librarian should not be making a social services evaluation or a health evaluation or a mental health evaluation to decide which social service or health service the patron needs. The librarian calls EMT, they are trained to do that. The librarian does not select a specific social service for this patron.

I have a funny/embarrassing/sad story about this very question. I was working the reference desk at a Public library in a town that doesn’t have a Homeless problem. It was a warm bright summer day. A mom came in with her three children who they were clutching sporting equipment like a small football. She asked me for the location of the nearest “shelter. “

I thought she meant a shelter house in a park, one of those places you rent for bbq gatherings. But after a confusing conversation it occurred to me that she meant an overnight shelter for families. I drew a blank because I don’t think that town had one at the time (probably it does it does now. ) She was probably from a more enlightened part of the country that offered shelter services.

[Yppej]

When the mental health hospitals/institutions were shut down in favor of treating individuals in the community is when this all occurred. Reagan started it and it might have worked if it was well planned and if there had been enough community services. However, neither of those things happened and it’s a total disaster. Add to that skyrocketing rents and the situation is unsustainable. Poor people used to live in crappy weekly motels downtown. Now they are all being torn down and replaced by very expensive condos for Californians. Lots l seniors living only on SS are displaced. Of course downtown looks better but at a big human cost. We need to build more affordable housing. The average family income is 52k and a one bedroom apartment is 1300. 2 bedrooms range between 1700-2000.

I think it is unfair to blame Reagan. The root cause was new discoveries in psychiatric medications coupled with disability rights advocates bringing court cases to avoid institutionalization. Individuals who are compliant with their medications usually do not need to be locked up in psych wards for life, nor do they want to be.

[Teacher Terry]

I am not saying that the institutions were a good thing because some were torture chambers. But when you look at the history the idea was for them to be in the community living in group homes or independently with supports. Unfortunately, it was not well planned and often supports weren’t provided and it fell onto families that were ill equipped to deal with the issue. We utterly failed which is why we have the problems that we do.

[Gardenarian]

Our country is run by corporations and the .01%. They apparently live in cloisters where crazy poor people and climate change don't exist.

It's a couple of years old, but I think the book "The Nordic Theory of Everything" is essential reading: https://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Theory...4hL&ref=plSrch

[JaneV2.0]

Our country is run by corporations and the .01%. They apparently live in cloisters where crazy poor people and climate change don't exist.

It's a couple of years old, but I think the book "The Nordic Theory of Everything" is essential reading: https://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Theory...4hL&ref=plSrch

That looks promising; I've put it on my "to read" list.

[mschrisgo2]

See separate thread

"What happened to create so many homeless?"

[Teacher Terry]

MS, yes what a mess! I had forgotten about all the new drug addicts. Nevada got into trouble for buying homeless people bus tickets to California.

[Alan]

Moderator: Please move this to a new thread with this title. Thank you!

"What happened to create so many homeless?"

We have limited tools at our disposal, we can edit thread titles, edit or delete user posts, merge threads, delete threads and several other thread related tasks. One thing we cannot do is pluck a post from a thread and insert it into a new thread without losing the original poster's identity.

I would suggest you create a new thread and copy/paste your post into it.