Keeping the Homeless Occupied
A phenomenon that received attention in a lead article in the previous issue of Street Sense is that the homeless have made the libraries a shelter of sorts for the daytime hours. The libraries do provide a significant number of activities that can be of interest to persons that have an entire day yawning before them until they must seek shelter for the night, with one of those activities being the use of computers that are hooked up to the Internet. Blogs written by homeless authors and user groups created by homeless group leaders have sprung up as a result.
With the majority of shelters being night shelters only, the homeless are left to wander through the streets of the city during the day. There are many problems in this situation, one of which is finding something constructive to do with the time that will not be regarded as loitering. The libraries offer an alternative that can be used constructively, as the blogs and user groups have shown. The argument will arise that the homeless should be looking for work, and that is also true, but a job search does not go on forever; being a person who helps people in their job searches on a daily basis, I am aware that after a person has created a résumé and cover letter, has searched for job openings and has applied for them, the only thing that’s left to do is to hurry up and wait, and that leaves idle time that can be especially nerve wracking. At that point, having something constructive to do is invaluable.
Obviously a library isn’t a shelter, and it shouldn’t have to serve as one. If some complaints are being raised that the homeless are using the libraries as if they were shelters, it is a sign that the real needs are not being addressed. The shelters that turn all their residents out into the streets every morning at 7:00am or thereabouts generate the problem by creating a void during the hours between the hour of discharge until the hour at which they do their evening intake, usually 7:00pm. Some sort of daily structured activity would be a positive development, and the fact that some homeless persons have used their time in the libraries to create sites in cyberspace indicates that much could be done with structured activity.
With recovery an ultimate goal, the need for productive day programs remains paramount. Because the population being served is incredibly diverse, the programs needed must target a wide spectrum of goals. If programs such as these are put into action, the chances that homelessness can be reduced are far greater than if the homeless are left to fend for themselves in the streets for twelve hours every day.Ultimately, homelessness should be eliminated completely so that the problem of finding ways to keep the homeless occupied would no longer be a problem. I know I’ve said this line many times before, and I still believe in it. Only if someone has an interest in keeping a segment of the population homeless – and that possibility does exist, I fear – can there be an excuse for not resolving the problem. The question still remains: will this problem be resolved?
With the majority of shelters being night shelters only, the homeless are left to wander through the streets of the city during the day. There are many problems in this situation, one of which is finding something constructive to do with the time that will not be regarded as loitering. The libraries offer an alternative that can be used constructively, as the blogs and user groups have shown. The argument will arise that the homeless should be looking for work, and that is also true, but a job search does not go on forever; being a person who helps people in their job searches on a daily basis, I am aware that after a person has created a résumé and cover letter, has searched for job openings and has applied for them, the only thing that’s left to do is to hurry up and wait, and that leaves idle time that can be especially nerve wracking. At that point, having something constructive to do is invaluable.
Obviously a library isn’t a shelter, and it shouldn’t have to serve as one. If some complaints are being raised that the homeless are using the libraries as if they were shelters, it is a sign that the real needs are not being addressed. The shelters that turn all their residents out into the streets every morning at 7:00am or thereabouts generate the problem by creating a void during the hours between the hour of discharge until the hour at which they do their evening intake, usually 7:00pm. Some sort of daily structured activity would be a positive development, and the fact that some homeless persons have used their time in the libraries to create sites in cyberspace indicates that much could be done with structured activity.
With recovery an ultimate goal, the need for productive day programs remains paramount. Because the population being served is incredibly diverse, the programs needed must target a wide spectrum of goals. If programs such as these are put into action, the chances that homelessness can be reduced are far greater than if the homeless are left to fend for themselves in the streets for twelve hours every day.Ultimately, homelessness should be eliminated completely so that the problem of finding ways to keep the homeless occupied would no longer be a problem. I know I’ve said this line many times before, and I still believe in it. Only if someone has an interest in keeping a segment of the population homeless – and that possibility does exist, I fear – can there be an excuse for not resolving the problem. The question still remains: will this problem be resolved?
posted by MasterWriter at 4:36 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home