Bob Koski longs for the library that his parents supported with property taxes (“Keep vagrants out of libraries,” Our Readers’ Views, Sept. 4), most likely in the ’50s and ’60s, when the homeless were referred to as vagrants or bums who conveniently lived on skid row, mostly hidden from view. It’s easy to marginalize the homeless by saying they are thieves, filthy, crazy and scary. Truth is they are diverse individuals and only all fit into one category — they don’t have anywhere to live. Many of them have paid taxes to support libraries in the past.
In “The Library Book,” Susan Orlean describes homelessness in the library as “the single consistent issue” faced by librarians around the world. “Libraries, because of their openness, are natural magnets for people who have nowhere else to go.”
By and large, Orlean says, librarians have “opened their arms” and accepted the homeless as part of their clientele, while acknowledging that their issues can be “magnified” in the close quarters of the library. Orlean says libraries “have done more than most city agencies” to help by offering services.
Homelessness is a societal problem screaming for solutions. Shutting these people out of public spaces is not the answer, and marginalizing them as somehow “subhuman” will never be part of the solution.
