If I told you that last week Susan and I took our kids to a place that was overrun with smelly homeless people and was being patrolled by armed police officers, you might think that we were bad parents. But what if I told you the place was the downtown Oklahoma City public library?
The last time I visited the downtown library was back in September of 2009, when Mason was asked to stand up by a security guard. On that trip, there were maybe half a dozen homeless people hanging out inside the library. This past weekend, now that it’s turned cold, there were at least thirty.
Essentially all the public seating areas were being taken up by homeless people. Many of them had their sleeping bags and backpacks piled next to them. Others were sitting using the computers (or at least pretending to). The chairs at the end of each row also had people camped out in them. I wouldn’t be quite as bitter about it if any of them had been reading. They weren’t. Not a single one of them had … wait, I take it back — one guy did have a book. He was using it to cover his face while he slept.
There was also a line of people at the front service desk, apparently making free phone calls from the phone at the front desk. We saw at least three different people doing this — every time we passed the desk, in fact. It’s like Kinko’s for the homeless.
The only area off-limits to the homeless population is the children’s area. There’s no real physical barrier keeping people out, but I’ve been told that homeless people without kids will be “asked to leave the area” — which is kind of like being told “this cabin is definitely off limits to the serial killer.” The children’s bathroom requires keycard access, and librarians accompany kids to it to make sure homeless people aren’t hiding out in there.
In the rest of the library, which includes all non-fiction books (the entire second floor), you’re on your own. I don’t want to make it sound like some sort of zombie horror movie in which hoards of toothless bodies were chasing us around, but it was at best an uncomfortable experience. At no time did I feel free letting the kids out of my sight.
Since our visit someone informed Susan that Oklahoma City has a “public smell law”, which means if someone has offensive body odor they can be asked to leave a public place. The entire library smelled like unwashed feet, so narrowing down the stink to a single person would have taken keen olfactory senses. Additionally, it would take me going to the librarian, pointing at a homeless person and saying, “that person smells — please remove them from the library.” Not really my style, thanks. And even if it were, I’m sure I’d have a confrontation with a stinky (and now cold) homeless person waiting for me just outside the front door. Again, no thanks.
I hope this didn’t come off as a rant against the homeless. I realize most homeless people are not dangerous, but many of them are mentally ill and the majority of them have drug and alcohol addictions.
There simply has to be a better place for them to hang out all day than where I take my kids to borrow books.
My wife is very pro-library, despite the fact she never goes to them. It is not uncommon for me to make fun of the library and how many homeless people hang out there. I am going to have to show her this blog to prove my point. Thanks!
They should bring one of the public busses that nobody rides and give them all a ride to the homeless shelter where they can stay warm, sleep and be fed and get them out of the library and off the street corners. Last night we passed a guy on a corner with a sign “Need 57 cents for a cheeseburger”. Right. They make more money panhandling than a lot of people who work 40 hours a week! OK, I’m off my soapbox, at least for now.
We have PADS in the south suburbs. Women and chidren are separate from the men. A different church each night of the week shelters them. My shift, at St. Agnes in the Heights, does serve a hot dinner, hot breakfast and send you off at 7AM with a lunch bag. You do have to find your way at this point to a day shelter, which is miles away. I’m sure we have alcoholics but most of my guys, in the new millenium, are truly down on their luck. I have one cook from New Orleans who has been looking for a job and finally found one washing dishes..not enough money for an apartment up here. A lot of them have wakeup calls(the Holiday Inn has nothing on us) to go to meager jobs.
WE are good to our homeless here but they would never be allowed to stay in a library or public place. If you have $4 you can get coffee and sit in Caribou. Otherwise you know what church is on the schedule at 4:30.
Maybe you need PADS there and it starts with the churches getting involved. They taught us “Whatsoever you do to the least of My brother…” They should show us how.
P.S. I hear you on the foot smell. Work Men’s Night at St. Agnes!!! Feet are sounding kind of good, comparatively speaking.
“I hope this didn’t come off as a rant against the homeless. I realize most homeless people are not dangerous, but many of them are mentally ill and the majority of them have drug and alcohol addictions. ”
You are just over the top pre-judgemental. And is it better to hide these poor persons from the public just so that you can have a comfortable life? Is it so bad to actually see how your society treats less fortunate people?
Instead of wishing not to see these persons, ask yourself rather what you can do to improve their life and dignity.
Or maybe that’s too much to ask for? Imagine that many homeless people are educated people, who lost a chance to stay in the “accepted levels” of the society because they could not afford health insurance, and then got ill … which is not uncommon with teachers in the US. Do you think that your kids teachers might be a potential homeless person in the future?
@Linda: That sounds like a great program, something that’s really making a difference!
@David: Your logic is ridiculous. That’s like saying I hate grizzly bears because I don’t want them running around my kid’s school. I’m not over the top judgmental — I cited scientific studies stating that approximately 40-45% of homeless people are mentally ill, and 75% of homeless people have drug and alcohol issues. Blame reality for those numbers, not me.
It’s not that I “don’t wish to see these people,” it’s WHERE I don’t wish to see them.