Library provides warmth, service referrals for homeless
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Harvey Kirk had a good spot, snug in an upholstered chair in the sun-drenched first floor of the Madison Central Library, his gear piled up at his feet, and a lunchtime cup of instant noodles in hand.
You'll find him at the library most days - even when the temperature is not below zero - after he walks the few blocks from the men's drop-in shelter at Grace Episcopal Church where he sleeps.
The library remains one of the few places for Madison homeless people to go in the daytime, says Kirk, 65. He prefers it over a popular day services program at Bethel Lutheran Church because it is less crowded, he says.
"Sometimes you like to get away from the crowd," says Kirk.
Plans by Dane County to open a day resource center for the homeless and provide a place to go were stymied by a zoning dispute with the town of Madison, where the facility the county proposes to renovate is located. The two governmental bodies now are in court over it.
Kirk is one of about 50 homeless people using the Central Library at any one time, executive director Greg Mickells told The Capital Times (http://bit.ly/1BQHaMZ).
The $30 million renovated Central Library, opened in fall 2013, has twice the public space as it used to, which means homeless people can be found in various open and alcove spaces on three floors. The clustering of homeless people with their gear is not as apparent to other casual visitors.
Mickells recalls a remark made recently by the mayor of the city of Appleton, who visited the Madison Central Library with his city's library director as they prepared for their own library expansion.
"As we walked through the building, he said he was surprised. 'I was expecting more homeless people,' he said," Mickells says.
"Well, they are here," Mickells says. "But the way that the building is designed - and because we have a behavior policy and monitor the situation - we can make it a welcoming place for everyone."
Mickells says he occasionally hears about someone having an outburst, "but I'm not hearing people say 'we're scared to go into your building.'"
Concerns that homeless people congregating outside the library, and their sometimes volatile behavior inside, were scaring people off from using the library were important considerations in the design of the renovated library.
Hiring an expanded, in-house crew of security monitors also was a calculated decision, Mickells says. Instead of contracting for security services as in the past, the library is now hiring security workers directly, which allows the city to better control hiring screening and the level of "customer service" provided to everyone who uses the library.
As a homeless man talked with a reporter in a study carrel on the second floor of the Central Library, a walkie-talkie equipped security monitor came by and matter-of-factly reminded the pair that the second floor is a quiet space and the first floor is the area where people are allowed to hold extended conversations.
Referrals to housing, employment, medical and other services were provided at the Central Library through a local nonprofit agency last year. The joint city of Madison-Dane County funding for that expired this summer, and the library relied on volunteer help until the city issued a $65,000 contract in December to hire two case managers, Mickells says.
The workers from Porchlight Inc. will direct homeless people to needed services, as do outreach workers from several local agencies who also serve the homeless that regularly use meeting space at the library.
James Gullet checked in with one of those visiting outreach workers about paying off an overdue utility bill so that he can get final approval for an apartment. He has been looking for a while. "Why is it so hard for senior citizens to get into housing?" asked Gullet, 63.
The outreach worker gave Gullet two bus passes to go to the utility customer service office, encouraging him to get started on a payment plan today. "They're not going to hold that apartment forever," he cautioned Gullet.
Gullet, also says he often spends the day at library because he enjoys the reading materials. He is familiar with the Hospitality House day program that Porchlight runs at a facility on Martin Street in the town of Madison, but he doesn't use it. Dane County is attempting to purchase the facility, located just off Fish Hatchery Road.
"I never go to Hospitality House," Gullet says, claiming that the facility smells bad and is too small and crowded. "It's full of folks not trying to do anything. That doesn't do anything for me."
Robert Britton, 48, has had a stretch of bad luck with workplace injuries, as well as some personal setbacks, and now is trying to get workers compensation from a former employer, he says. Distressed over the health, legal and housing challenges confronting him, Britton says he was not aware that he could talk with someone at the library about making connections for help with those or other issues.
"I'm doing what everybody is doing here - staying warm," Britton says.
Kirk, who calmly explains that he became homeless after a series of events he had no control over, recites where to find free meals in Madison and is eager to share a brochure listing the sites produced and distributed by local churches.
A former commercial baker, Kirk says he collects Social Security and is on a waiting list for public housing, but the list is two years long.
"If I don't find anything, I may go to another town where the situation is more advantageous for subsidized housing," he says.
He was living in Rockford, Illinois, when he became homeless and went to the local library and searched online for information about homeless services, he says.
He found a lot of articles about Occupy Madison, the economic equity protest turned homeless encampment that became a nonprofit organization now developing a village of tiny houses for the homeless on the east side.
"I bought a Van Galder bus ticket and that's how I got here," he said.
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Information from: The Capital Times, http://www.madison.com/tct