Urban libraries a haven for homeless in Chattanooga, state

Billy Broom uses a computer Friday at the Chattanooga Public Library.
Billy Broom uses a computer Friday at the Chattanooga Public Library.

I've been in the business for 20 years, and everywhere I've worked, we have embraced the homeless population."

Jeffery Bailey spends nearly every day at the main library in downtown Nashville.

It's not just that he loves books. For the 43-year-old who sleeps in a tent outside a local church, the library is pretty much the only place he can go that won't charge him to provide safety, warmth, useful services and entertainment.

Many public libraries discourage homeless people from hanging around all day.

"It could be the way you dress, the way your hair is," says Bailey, whose scruffy denim jacket could use a good wash.

But just as Bailey needs his library, the library needs him: In this digital age, many people who used to depend on libraries can find what they need online without leaving home. Menaced by budget cuts, many public libraries are effectively failing to justify their relevance, reducing their hours year after year.

At the same time, libraries are more important than ever to people who can't otherwise get connected: Nearly two-thirds provide the only free computer and Internet access in their communities, according to the American Library Association.

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The single most important thing libraries can help people do online is find a job, the association found. Even fast-food restaurants require online applications now. But many libraries still require patrons to have an address and photo identification to get a library card, and then limit the time patrons can spend online.

Yet helping the homeless is nothing new for libraries, Chattanooga Public Library Director Corinne Hill said.

"I've been in the business for 20 years, and everywhere I've worked, we have embraced the homeless population," she said.

Billy Broom, 43, a Chattanooga library user who's been homeless for about 11 years, agrees.

"The library staff here, they're really excellent," Broom said.

He learned how to use the computer and a number of Google applications such as Gmail, YouTube and Google+ with help from the library staff.

"I've learned how to do digital photo edits," Broom said. "It's pretty fun."

Along with the homeless, the Chattanooga library's main branch downtown is a popular destination for residents of nearby Patten Towers, a once-grand downtown hotel that's now home to the poor, disabled and elderly who receive government assistance to pay their rent.

It's possible the presence of the homeless and poor people keeps others away from the downtown library, Hill acknowledged. The Northgate branch, which is a fraction the size of the four-story downtown library, is busier.

But Hill said the homeless are part of the experience of being in a downtown, urban environment. She said the library has a behavior code that prohibits such things as sleeping, swearing, fighting and being drunk.

"We have rules, but the rules are for everyone," she said. "I don't care if you live in a tent, or you live on Lookout Mountain -- you can't come in drunk."

Hill hasn't had to tell any Chattanooga library patrons that they needed to bathe because they smell bad, but she had to do that when she worked as a librarian in downtown Dallas.

"They're embarrassed," Hill said. "But the thing is, librarians are incredibly compassionate."

Librarians are good at referring homeless people to services that they need, Hill said.

In the 25 years since the association adopted a policy urging full access for poor and homeless library patrons, few have taken this mission as far as Nashville's main downtown library, where Bailey arrives early each day, standing on an icy sidewalk in below-freezing temperatures with a half-dozen other people until the ornate bronze doors open.

photo Corinne Hill, executive director.

Once inside, he goes directly to the third floor, where rows of computer terminals are quickly occupied by people carrying bags filled with their worldly possessions.

The library recently renovated this section with its homeless patrons in mind, adding 68 computers and more tables with ethernet connections and power outlets.

"They have a good book selection, a good music selection, movies," Bailey said one morning after using Facebook to check in with his family. Without being able to stay at the library, "I'd probably do a lot of walking and trying to find a place to use the Internet."

More than 70 percent of librarians surveyed several years ago said they weren't aware of any libraries that successfully serve the poor, according to an association report.

Librarian Liz Coleman, who serves on a new Homelessness Advisory Committee at the Nashville Public Library, says her co-workers are frustrated they can't help everyone. One regular patron died of exposure; another was hit by a car and died shortly before he was to receive housing.

"It was a feeling of kind of helplessness," she said. "You see these folks every day, so you can't help but care about them. But what are you going to do? You can't take them home with you."

But librarians don't have to shoulder the burden alone: In a partnership with other agencies, the Nashville library hosts drop-in hours with city social workers and mental health counselors.

They helped Susan Hulme's sister-in-law after she was hospitalized and couldn't work to get food stamps and other resources for finding a new job. The woman was embarrassed, and intimidated by the bureaucracy of the social services agency. Going to her library made it easier.

"It was more friendly, more accessible," Hulme said. "It was a safe place for her to tell her story."

Other exceptions include Pima County, Ariz., where public health nurses wander the county's 27 libraries with stethoscopes around their necks, offering blood pressure checks and identifying difficult cases for more care.

Pooling resources like this may seem obvious, but these agencies still don't work together in many communities.

Librarian Julie Ann Winklestein, who co-wrote an association pamphlet to help librarians better serve people who have been turned away by other institutions, said that needs to change, since providing information to the public is what libraries are supposed to be all about.

"Librarians can't solve people's problems, but we can provide them the resources to solve their own problems," she said.

Staff writer Tim Omarzu and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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