By Jeremy Lybarger
Anyone who’s been to San Francisco’s Main Library in Civic Center knows it can sometimes be a lawless place. Like other public hubs in the neighborhood, it’s a haven for the homeless and mentally ill, especially during the city’s rare heatwaves or inclement weather. Horror stories about patrons shooting up in the bathroom, assaulting each other, haranguing each other, urinating on books, masturbating (which I witnessed firsthand), and smashing a computer with a hammer are the stuff of urban legend — except the stories are true.
Now, all that is changing.
In response to meetings with homeless advocates, the Library Commission adopted a kinder, gentler Code of Conduct in October. It’s a less draconian policy than that urged by Mayor Lee last year, which recommended stiff penalties for rule-breakers. Gone is the ban against staring, and the ban against “pervasive odors” is enforced in only the most extreme cases (as when a patron has soiled himself). And whereas previous infractions could yield a yearlong suspension, the new code more often results in unruly patrons being asked to leave for the day.
“If people are disrespected or treated badly, they respond in equal measure or worse,” Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, told the Chronicle. “We really wanted to shift the direction of the library away from a punitive approach to an approach where they’re providing a resource to poor and homeless people in the community.”
In addition to policy changes, the library has also beefed up its security force and hired six assistants for the in-house social worker who reports problems and conducts regular bathroom patrols.
The turnaround has been encouraging. As the Chronicle reports, from January to December 2014 monthly incident reports at the Main Library dropped 74 percent. Between October and December 2013, the Main Library issued 33 suspensions, while between October and December 2014 it issued five.
All in all, it seems that the library’s wildest days could be behind us.
Update: A previous version of this article contained a link to the SF Book Project, a site that allows patrons to either pay off another person’s fines or request help paying their own. The SFPL has informed me that this site is not affiliated with the library and patrons should not register nor share any personal information with the site.
[via SF Chronicle; photo courtesy of Flickr]
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