1. Working with Homeless Customers
Introduction and thanks
Little bit about the library and the community
3 locations and a bookmobile serving a population of about 200,000 in the far western suburbs
This presentation focuses on our main library, the Richard and Gina Santori Library of Aurora
6 blocks away from Illinois’ second-largest homeless shelter
Daily population of homeless individuals
Michaela Haberkern Deputy Director Aurora Public Library

2. Changing Our Philosophy
New director, new direction
From a rules-based to a customer-based service philosophy
An evolution that is still taking place
The way we work with homeless customers is part of this
New director in 2014
New building in 2015
New strategic plan in 2017
Broad, basic change in the way we look at ourselves
Previous administration had a very traditional outlook: lots of rules and procedures designed to ease staff discomfort about decision-making, a fairly hierarchical structure
Current administration has a more modern approach: looking for ideas to come from all levels, expecting staff to make judgements in the moment, a focus on the customer rather than the rules
This doesn’t happen overnight: we have a big staff, and lots of people have worked here a long time. It’s a process.
Working with our homeless customers is one part of this bigger shift

3. Changing Our Outlook Law and order, us against them approach
Born of experience and exhaustion
Staff burnout
Customer complaints
As we’ve been working on changing our philosophy, we’ve begun to change our practices
Previously: a law and order, us against them approach
Easy to fall into: we see the same people with the same problems day after month after year and it gets exhausting
Staff were and are sick of dealing with the same issues time and again – and there are a lot of issues
We were also getting, and still get, a fair number of customer complaints around other people’s behavior: people are bothered by other people sleeping, eating, smelling bad, looking at them, etc. Also panhandling, drinking, yelling, fighting, etc.
The assumption was that our problems were being caused by our homeless population

4. Changing Our Practice Escalation Zero tolerance
Over the years, we developed an elaborate system of escalating consequences for problem behaviors: one, three, six months, one, two year and permanent bans for sleeping, making noise/ disturbing others, intoxication, drug use or possession, physical or verbal harassment, abuse of computer policy, and other
We had a Person in Charge system that made one person responsible for all behavior problems in the building, in addition to uniformed contracted security officers. All PICs came from one department: Adult Services.
We had TONS of bans. When I started in January 2016, there were new bans issued literally every day, with over 100 in force at any given time
Customers would receive a month ban on Monday, a three month ban on Tuesday, and by the end of the week be banned for life
All violations from sleeping to smoking to porn-looking through fighting and drinking carried the same punishment: loss of library privileges
We even banned people for things that weren’t against the rules: painting, hair-curling, sharing a restroom stall, misusing a locker
Clearly, we had to do something: our approach was not working

5. Changing Our Practice De-escalation Non-punitive approaches
Getting the facts
We’re changing our approach to focus more on de-escalation rather than enforcement
De-escalation training for PICs including Ryan Dowd’s Dealing with Difficult Homeless Patrons – which helps with dealing with any difficult customer
Monthly meetings for PICs to talk through recurring issues
Less serious offences (sleeping, inappropriate computer use, running, etc.) now merit warnings and being asked to leave for the day
Only violent or illegal behavior is subject to escalation, and we’re more likely to get the police involved
Greater focus on getting to know customers with recurring issues
Remember those hundreds of bans in force that I mentioned earlier? I ran the numbers in 2016 and found that just 33% of our bans were for customers that listed Hesed House as their address. A few more listed no address – still less than 40%. Today, we have 33 bans in force, with 18 of them – 55% at Hesed. Counting unknown addresses – 5 – it’s 47%.
Fortunately, most of the steps we were taking helped us deal with issues and people rather than with populations.

6. Changing Our Policies Code of Conduct Ended lifetime bans Snack policy
Restricted use card
Code of Conduct revised in 2015: simpler, friendlier language, fewer things forbidden
Snack policy approved in early 2017: covered drinks and snacks are OK
Circ policy revised in late 2016: people residing at Hesed House can get a library card. This a direct result of a request from Hesed House: surveys indicated that access to borrowing privileges was the number one social justice issue for homeless people. Think of that!
One thing we haven’t changed, that would make a huge difference to our homeless population, is our policy against sleeping. Our board feels strongly, the community is uncomfortable seeing people “camped out” all over the library. So we’re still enforcing the policy, just in a kinder way. And it’s helping: staff are less angry and exhausted, and I think most customers understand.

7. Developing Relationships
Frank conversations with the directors of local agencies
PIC responsibilities
Staff training
Social work intern
We met with the directors of Hesed House and Wayside Cross as well as other social service agencies in town, and asked them how we could serve their clients better. In return, we asked them to help us handle longstanding and recurrent problems
PIC responsibilities distributed more equitably throughout professional staff
We invested in de-escalation training for staff with PIC responsibilities first, then broadened it out to all staff
We worked with Aurora University to host a social work intern who has worked to educate staff and to get to know our homeless population

8. One Thing We Cannot Change
Our location, six blocks away from Hesed House, the second-largest homeless shelter in Illinois
So – while we’ll always have difficult homeless customers, we’ll also have difficult customers with housing. Every library has difficult customers and every library has some things that they can’t change. We’ve chosen to focus on the things that we can change, and I do think that the changes we’ve made have benefitted customers AND staff.