Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new study says

Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by austenallred on Monday July 10, 2017 @01:30PM (#14737975)

> But why didn't she just go to the public library? An internet cafe?

She isn't close to one. And I don't know of many libraries that are cool with you videoconferencing with instructors and pair programming 8 hrs/day.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by brandall10 on Monday July 10, 2017 @01:57PM (#14738198)

Interesting you say that. I happen to live 5 blocks from the new central library in San Diego. It's huge and very expensive (nearly $200M). It also has what appears to be 100 or so public computers that are pretty much used non-stop by the large homeless population which borders the area to the east of downtown. Look at some of the more negative yelp reviews for it: https://www.yelp.com/biz/san-diego-public-library-san-diego-...

Ultimately, there really isn't anything that can be done - you can't kick someone out because they look or smell a certain way if they're using a public utility the way it was meant to be used.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by Mz on Monday July 10, 2017 @02:17PM (#14738364)

I used to get kicked out of the San Diego library for smelling bad when I was homeless in San Diego. It was a loose interpretation of some rule about interfering with other people's use of the library. I also know of a library system that literally has a smell rule. It pisses me off because it is basically a Jim Crow law. I have serious allergies and respiratory problems and it can literally make me ill when someone shows up stinking to high heaven of strong perfume. But you can bet the librarians would not have thrown them out had I complained.

That "you smell" thing is basically code for "no homeless people." There is no objective smell-o-meter that indicates when someone is actually a threat to public welfare or something. And in settings where people did not know I was homeless, I did not see evidence that I actually smelled bad. They would ask me about my vacation plans while cutting my hair.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by chongli on Monday July 10, 2017 @06:09PM (#14740130)

Ultimately, there really isn't anything that can be done - you can't kick someone out because they look or smell a certain way if they're using a public utility the way it was meant to be used.

There's lots that can be done. How about more computers, for a start? If they're monopolizing 100 computers then how about 1000? Install public showers and laundry facilities, too. Add in a volunteer job training center. Run free programming classes and job interview tutorials. Resumé review classes would be great, too.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by ikeyany on Monday July 10, 2017 @07:13PM (#14740426)

Libraries aren't homeless shelters.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by chongli on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @07:35AM (#14743260)

Right. Libraries have the opportunity to help people break the cycle of poverty rather than merely sustain it.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by vkou on Monday July 10, 2017 @02:17PM (#14738357)

Some of those yelp reviews are amazing - I can only assume they are coming from the same group of people that thinks that the homeless should stop being losers and just get a real job.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by jschwartzi on Monday July 10, 2017 @03:39PM (#14738974)

They're all written by the people who complain about pit toilets in national parks.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by austenallred on Monday July 10, 2017 @02:01PM (#14738235)

That is interesting. She's in rural Texas, so obviously pretty different, but I didn't know there were libraries like that anywhere.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by brandall10 on Monday July 10, 2017 @02:13PM (#14738333)

I don't think think legally there are libraries not like that anywhere. To be removed, someone has to be committing a crime. In most cases with homeless people that aren't actually committing an obvious crime it's loitering (or solicitation if panhandling). In a library if you're actually reading a book or using a computer you're not loitering any more than anyone else there.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by Consultant32452 on Monday July 10, 2017 @04:25PM (#14739328)

This is a problem with the design of the system. "Using the computer" just so you can be inside in the air conditioning is definitely not how those resources were intended to be used. The problem is that it's impossible to practically police this behavior individually, but easy to detect in aggregate. If the homeless person just sits around in the library doing nothing, they're loitering, but because they're sitting at a computer eating up a resource, it's not loitering. I certainly don't mean to assume a homeless person wouldn't have a legit reason to use the library computers. That's why I noted the difference between policing an individual is impossible, but seeing the trend in aggregate is easy.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by austenallred on Monday July 10, 2017 @02:16PM (#14738353)

But we require our students to talk a lot. At least in the libraries I've been to there's an expectation of noise level. That said, I haven't been to very many libraries.

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Re:Up to 14% of community college students are homeless, new... by Mz on Monday July 10, 2017 @03:46PM (#14739027)

Some libraries are not even open 8 hours a day, every day. In fact, most library systems seem to not be open 7 days a week. Even the ones that are typically have shorter hours at least on some days.

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