San Francisco Library Hires Social Worker
Melvin Morris talks to Robert Lewis about services available to him. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.
The San Francisco Main Library used to have a problem with the homeless, according to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
They would curse patrons and sometimes hang out in the bathrooms, doing drugs, washing in the sinks and having sex.
Did the library ban them? Nope. They hired social worker Leah Esguerra to provide them with services and referee disputes between library workers, patrons, and the homeless. If things gets hairy Esguerra will call security.
She also trains “health and safety associates,” formerly homeless people who are hired to monitor the bathrooms.
“I come from the same place they come from,” said Melvin Morris, 50, the first health and safety associate the library hired. “When I talk to them, they can’t believe I was actually homeless. I tell them they could do it, too.”
Want to learn more about how social workers help the homeless? Click here to read “Family Safety Real Life Stories — From Homelessness to Independent Living” on the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Web site.
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Ah, my dream job. I’d love to work in a library AND be a social worker…sigh.
How Can a person help a single homeless man with a cat. He is living under the greyhound bus terminal,with his cat. He is sick with a very bad chest cold,and I am concerned that it could get worse. I have been e-mailing and talking to so many people, and still he is homeless and has given up ever getting a permanent home.
What I don’t under stand is how do you get into talk to someone who will actually help him out, He has a trust issue with the system.
I look up one site and it stated you had to be at an address at 6am in the morning and by 7am they gone.
I want to help this man but no one wants to come out of their comfort zone to help me.
this man is not on drugs, or an not drink alcohol, he is very clean for a homeless man, I have hug him and he smell ‘s clean. he shaves, and keeps his cat environment clean too.
My name is Carol Hansen and please contact me at carol.hansen@sierraclub.org, please don’t send me any more list I need a body to come and help me get this iman into a permanent place .
I don’t know what state he is in- every state, and many times local municipality, has different laws and services available regarding the homeless. However, it is universal that you cannot force someone into services if they are not an immediate threat to the safety of self (i.e., actively suicidal) or others (i.e., homicidal or actively violent). Passively harmful to self- ignoring illness, choosing to avoid shelter, is not enough legally to force someone into services. It’s the balance of civil rights vs. public protection- never an easy thing to get right.
While some cities do have active outreach services to the homeless, no one can compel this man to find housing- in essence, he has a right to be homeless. He may not have a right to stay where he is currently staying- the property owner could force him out via police- but unless he becomes an active danger no one can force him into a housing program. And, honestly, even if he met the danger criteria, he would be hopsitalized for a few days, maybe a few weeks at most, given referrals, and be once again free to live on the streets if he so chose.
Sorry- I also wanted to add this— It is difficult to find agencies to go to this man due to his right of refusal; in essence, the burden lies on him to reach out for help. Most agencies, public and private, are overwhelmed by the people that are actively seeking help- they don’ t have the resources to search out people that only MAY want help- homeless is so pervasive that most helpers have to turn away people banging on their doors, even with young children. In Baltimore, where I am, people line up at 3am or earlier to get into shelters that have that 1 hour window of 6am to 7am. Its a sad truth- if this man really wants help, he can get it if he is persistent- but I’ve never heard of a shelter that will allow animals in for Health Department reg reasons. And if he doesn’t want help- he’s an adult, it’s his choice. And some people really do choose to be homeless- shelters aren’t always very nice places.