Tackling Exclusion, Building Communities

As the HHPTF has documented, U.S. libraries have been slow to adopt the social-exclusion framework for public service. See, for example, the “Open to All?” research, conducted in Great Britain.

Librarians who are seeking community-building models can benefit tremendously from projects launched in Great Britain and Canada.

Through national campaigns, these countries promote relationships between library staff and traditionally excluded groups. The resulting collaborations create more useful programs and services and more cohesive communities.

Canada’s Working Together Project has launched a new Web site: www.librariesincommunities.ca. Though portions are still under development, the site promises info on best practices, outreach toolkits, and more.

The Working Together Project has two main objectives.

The first objective is to use a community development approach to build connections and relationships in the community. These connections facilitate a better understanding of what socially excluded communities want and need from public libraries …

The second objective is to identify and investigate systemic barriers to library use. Many socially excluded people see and feel barriers that may not be evident to librarians and library staff.

The WTP is coordinated by LJ “Mover & Shaker” Annette DeFaveri and directed by her colleague Sandra Singh. DeFaveri authored the must-read article “Breaking Barriers: Libraries and Socially Excluded Communities” [pdf].

Helen Carpenter, Project Coordinator with the London Libraries Development Agency, has helped launch Welcome to Your Library, featuring a Website for improving access for refugees and asylum seekers: www.welcometoyourlibrary.org.uk. The site offers resources applicable to all socially-excluded groups, including practical advice, case studies, research reports, and more.

Welcome To Your Library (WTYL) is a project to increase opportunities for active engagement and participation by refugee communities in public library service planning and delivery. By doing so, WTYL aims to improve access to and quality of public library services for everyone.

A primary component of the social-exclusion framework is an understanding that there are many people in society who have no say in decision-making and have no access to power structures.

Exclusion is not merely a condition suffered by a passive victim but rather a deliberate (if uninformed) act performed by an authority. Social isolation doesn’t merely exist—it is created and perpetuated.

For a detailed yet accessible primer on social exclusion, read John Pateman’s 2005 keynote address from the Vancouver Public Library Staff Conference: “Tackling Social Exclusion in Libraries” [pdf].

How Can Librarians Respond to Poverty?

The following commentary was posted by Isabel Espinal on the Progressive Librarians Guild list (12/06/06) as part of a discussion about service to low-income people, particularly African American and Latino families. It is reprinted here, with minor edits and with her permission.



How can librarians respond [to poverty]? Good question. I thought of just a few things. Maybe others can think of more:



1. Strengthen the libraries in communities where poor African American and Latino families live.

My thoughts on this come from my experience in public libraries in such communities years ago, but also my recent experience at the University of Massachusetts Learning Commons.

From my experience working in public libraries in Connecticut, it seemed that libraries in poor neighborhoods were often the least well funded and the most vulnerable to be cut. Sometimes the reasoning was low circulation—sort of saying those people don’t read so why waste money on libraries there. The logic seemed crazy to me because to me those are the libraries that are most needed. They should be the last to be cut.

Well-to-do people (who abound in Connecticut) and even middle class people can afford to buy their own books and computers. Poor people can’t. When I worked in Connecticut (and I’m not saying all Connecticut libraries do this nor that they still do this), I got frustrated with the model that rewarded libraries with high circulation by giving them more resources, while punishing libraries with low circulation.

I also was frustrated because the staffing model that was in place in many libraries made it difficult to get out of the vicious cycle. There was not enough, if any, staffing for outreach work, which is time-intensive work.

It seemed libraries too often just sat there waiting for people to come in who oftentimes did not know the library even existed, nor that it had anything relevant, nor that it would welcome them. Or the library just wasn’t open when working people were not working. So no wonder there was low circulation.

In poor communities, and in all communities, the library has a special role as a place. I work at a university now that has a very successful Learning Commons. It’s interesting in many ways but one thing that strikes me is the turn around in the thinking of some librarians who a few years ago thought we needed to think of all users as remote users and downplay our investment in the library as a physical place.

Well, that day might be coming, but right now one thing the Learning Commons is telling us is that it’s still important to invest in places that people can go to to access resources. Not only that but to expand the hours—we are now open 24 hours five of the days of the week. And circulation has gone up by 84% since the Learning Commons opened.

So what does this have to do with poor people and specifically poor African American and Latino people? Well, I think it would be great if three were Learning Commons in libraries in every poor Latino and African American community.



2. People who are not poor are not well informed about poverty and are often deliberately misinformed by certain politicians.

I think libraries can play a role in providing information about poverty and poor people to everyone, but especially in a context of informing citizens whose votes will affect policies that can alleviate, eliminate, or on the other hand reproduce and even extend poverty.

I think libraries in affluent and middle class communities can do a lot to bridge the information and misinformation gap. And this can take on a more active approach than just collection development, which is important.

But there could be displays around certain dates—I know that Kathleen de la Peña McCook’s blogs like A Librarian at the Kitchen Table highlights various observance days that libraries can participate in.

Human Rights Day, December 10, is a perfect example with its logo this year [2006]: “Fighting Poverty: A Matter of Obligation not Charity.” Libraries can also make it a point to invite speakers and authors who address issues of poverty and in particular of race, culture, and poverty. From all angles.

The policy angles are important, but I think for many white (and even non-white) middle class people, they need to hear stories of what it’s like to be poor and black or Latino in America—they have no idea. So library book discussion groups would also be a venue for addressing these issues.



3. What are the information and library needs of poor black and Latino people?

These need to be asked, explored, and addressed. They need to be a priority for libraries.

Isabel Espinal

Fiasco in Florida: No Housing, No Human Rights

On January 19, police and fire officials in St. Petersburg, Florida, dismantled a tent city inhabited by homeless people.

According to The Ledger and other media, officers reportedly destroyed many of the tents and the personal possessions left inside.

Facing litigation and public outrage at the manner in which the city acted, Mayor Rick Baker announced the availability of $150,000 to help homeless people and plans for a new shelter with 200 beds.

Outside City Hall, an advocate for the homeless said he was puzzled that no one who is homeless had a say in Baker’s plan.

“Homeless people are more than happy to sit down and share their experiences,” Eric Rubin said. “Aren’t they the best ones to know what will work?” …

Darryl Rouson, the former president of the St. Petersburg NAACP, represents the Rev. Bruce Wright and his Refuge Ministries, as well as several homeless people who had their belongings destroyed in the police raids.

On the same day that he attended Baker’s news conference, Rouson formally notified the city that it could face a lawsuit for civil rights violations that include destroying personal property without due process.

More than a week before the raid, Mayor Baker published an op-ed that speaks to his belief that poverty is a lifestyle:

The difficult balance is to satisfy our societal and moral obligation to help those in our community who are in need and who are willing to work toward independence, but not open the door to make us a magnet for people to come from other places, or for those who simply want our taxpayers to support a lifestyle that should not be tax-subsidized.

As the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty points out, the “magnet theory” is a myth: 75% of homeless people remain in the city in which they became homeless. That said, perhaps more people would “choose” a different “lifestyle” if living wages and affordable housing were available to everyone.

A week before the raid, the St. Petersburg Times profiled some of the tent city’s residents, including a woman who escaped domestic abuse, a couple in their late-20s, a bi-polar woman on disability, and a former felon.

Watching Jessica Tennyson sweep out her tent, it’s hard to imagine she could lose anything. Slowly, meticulously, she slides the broom bristles across the lip of the dustpan. Back and forth, she strains to get every grain of sand, every sliver of grass.

But she did lose something: her Social Security disability check. Two months running the checks have failed to come, and now she says the government has put a freeze on her account until it can determine if the checks were stolen and cashed.

Want to be a part of the solution in St. Pete? Here are some organizations seeking your help:

Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless
www.pinellashomeless.org/ez/
727-528-5763

St. Vincent de Paul
www.svdpsouthpinellas.org/donations.html
727-823-2516

Catholic Charities
www.ccdosp.org
727-893-1313

Worcester Public Library Settles Homeless Suit

What a great way to start 2007! We almost missed the following positive news, which appeared December 25th:

Last week, the city [of Worcester, Mass.] settled with the Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which filed the suit on behalf of three co-plaintiffs who live in shelters and felt they were discriminated against.

Under the settlement, the library has scrapped its policy restricting borrowing privileges of residents of shelters, transitional housing programs and adolescent programs.

In addition, the city has agreed to host the National Coalition for the Homeless’ Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau in Worcester, according to a joint statement released by the library and Legal Assistance Corporation. As part of the event, people who have experienced homelessness share their stories with the community, telling of the hardships and discrimination they faced …

The head of the local chapter of the ACLU said when the suit was filed that people should be judged on their own merits, and not on their living status. Last week, those involved in the case praised the resolution without the need for further legal action.

“We appreciate the willingness of the city and the library board of directors to come to the table to discuss equal access to the library and its materials for all,” Jonathan L. Mannina, executive director of Legal Assistance, said.

The complete story is available on the LACCM’s Web site.

Homeless People and the Seattle Public Library

Via SRRT’s Fred Stoss and DrWeb’s Domain, a profile of the Seattle Public Library’s relationship with homeless patrons:

“New Library a Haven for Homeless”
by Vanessa Ho
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006

… [T]oday, the library is doing more to accommodate both rich and poor. There are more programs for a wider audience, from noontime lectures to children’s events to writing workshops for homeless people …

Anyone who reeks gets a polite request to leave and a card telling him or her where to get a free shower.

“That’s probably the one that’s the most difficult to enforce, because it’s really personal,” [security officer Christopher] Hogan said.

Since the library opened, officers have barred more than 800 rule breakers, mostly for sleeping or being disruptive. The exclusions last for a few days to one year.

[Tiberious] Shapiro, who often plays pinochle online, said he had a spell of nodding off at the library, which got him banned. He had torn his shoulder at a job heaving 50-pound sacks of rice, was on painkillers and couldn’t stay awake. But the officers, he said, had been nice about it.

“They go out of their way to give you every possible chance they can.”

Benefits Program Locator and Tax Toolkit

Earlier this year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled and organized links to state-based benefits programs and related resources.

Virtually all states have made information regarding the five main state-administered low-income benefit programs—food stamps, Medicaid, SCHIP, TANF and child care—available to the public via the internet. There is significant variation between what online information is provided across states.

Some provide a simple description of each program on their agencies websites. Others offer additional information, such as application forms, eligibility screening tools, and policy and procedure manuals used by state agency caseworkers.

Find your state here: www.cbpp.org/1-14-04tanf.htm

The CBPP has also created a 2006 tax toolkit for low-income families who may benefit from the Earned Income Credit (EIC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). In their words, “Make Tax Time Pay!”

For more info visit: www.cbpp.org/eic2006/index.html

How Rich People Are Winning the Class War

Satia Orange in ALA’s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) shared a recent Bill Moyers speech. Delivered to the Council of Great City Schools in October, the address treats inequality in the U.S., including IRS persecution of poor people:

In 2001, 397,000 people who applied for the Earned Income Tax Credit were audited, one out of every 47 returns. That’s a rate eight times higher than the rate for people earning $100,000 or more. Only one out of every 366 returns of wealthy households was audited. Over the previous 11 years, in fact, audit rates for the poor increased by a third, while the wealthiest enjoyed a 90% decline in IRS scrutiny. Of all the 744,000 tax returns audited by the IRS in 2002, more than half, David Cay Johnston finds, were filed by the working poor. More than half of IRS audits targeted people who account for less than 20% of taxpayers, the poorest 20%.

For the complete speech (a PDF), visit:

www.cgcs.org/pdfs/Bill_Moyers.pdf

For more on the IRS and its resistance to public scrutiny, visit:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/current/

On a similar note, Ben Stein writes in The New York Times of Warren Buffett’s frustration with the tax system (“In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning,” Nov. 26, 2006):

Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all.

It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?”

Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare.

“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

November 12-18, 2006, marks National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Advocacy efforts are sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness.

Participating in National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week not only brings greater awareness to your community, but also helps to promote the national endeavor to end hunger and homelessness. The plight of those without a home can be both lonely and difficult. Addressing their struggles by organizing and participating in this week may bring greater solidarity and understanding, as well as promote future involvement … It is imperative to dispel myths that label homelessness as someone else’s problem or claim that an end to homelessness is impossible.

A manual featuring organizing ideas and tips is available as a PDF. For more information, visit www.nationalhomeless.org.

Criminalization of the Poor: A Case Study in Colorado

In an article titled “Downtown ‘Problems’ Might not Exist,” the Colorado Springs Business Journal offers another classic example of how commercial interests contribute to the criminalization of homeless people.

The basic formula:

Step 1: Foment unreasonable fear of street people.

Step 2: Employ punitive measures to “manage” them.

The Business Improvement District and Downtown Partnership have set aside $137,000 to address problems caused by the street population by hiring off-duty police officers to patrol downtown, but neither the groups nor the police department have any statistical data to show that “problems” truly exist …

In a white paper entitled “Street People Letter,” [Beth] Kosley, the Downtown Partnership’s executive director, cites several “facts” as reasons why the partnership and the BID need to address the “problem” of the street population.

“Worse, the most recent reports we have received speak to actual physical threats to safety, in the form of mugging, a baby-snatching attempt and robbery in a home by an assailant,” the report says.

When asked about the mugging, baby-snatching attempt and robbery, Kosley referred to the incidents as “anecdotal,” but Gold Hill [Police] Commander Kurt Pillard used another term: urban legend …

Who are “those people”—those men with backpacks and sleeping bags that are causing such alarm that, according to the Downtown Partnership’s white paper, they scared a woman back into her car just by their presence outside the main door of the Penrose Library?

According to Homeward Pikes Peak director Bob Holmes, about 85 percent of the Pike Peak region’s 1,450 homeless are “crisis homeless”—women and children left without homes temporarily. The other 15 percent are chronically homeless …

“It’s important to remember that 62 percent of the people who eat at the Marian House once a day are not homeless,” he said. “They’re the working poor—they have jobs—or they’re retired on fixed incomes. They can afford a place to live, but can’t always afford food.” …

Michael Stoops, acting director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. said the Downtown Partnership’s and BID’s measures are “draconian.”

“There are ways to address the problem that are less expensive,” he said. “If they hired civilian outreach workers to intervene, mediate disputes, do case management, it would be cheaper. Some cities—such as Fort Lauderdale—have tried this and been very successful.”

Read the complete article here:
www.thepbj.com/story.cfm?ID=9887

The Perks of Privilege and Poor Losers

The May/June 2006 issue of MotherJones compiled some interesting facts illustrating gross extremes between the Haves and the Have-Nots:

If the $5.15 hourly minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO compensation since 1990, it would now stand at $23.03.

A minimum wage employee who works 40 hours a week for 51 weeks a year goes home with $10,506 before taxes.

The $17,530 earned by the average Wal-Mart employee last year was $1,820 below the poverty line for a family of 4.

5 of America’s 10 richest people are Wal-Mart heirs.

A follow-up piece in the July/August 2006 issue of the magazine further illustrates the inequality and disadvantages poor people confront:

51% of the uninsured are $2,000 or more in medical debt. 16% owe at least $10,000.

Inner-city grocery stores sell milk for 43% more than suburban supermarkets.

In Chicago’s poorest areas, the ratio of check-cashing outlets to banks is 10-to-1.

In 2003, the IRS estimated it “protected” $3.1 billion of revenue by cracking down on EITC [Earned Income Tax Credit] filings. Half of all audits are now conducted on taxpayers earning less than $25,000.

The IRS, incidentally, has been involved in an ongoing FOIA-related lawsuit. The agency has resisted public scrutiny of its statistical information. See, for example:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/current/ http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/147/