Homelessness Strains New York's Libraries

City Journal Audio

Manhattan Institute

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.7 • 657 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2019

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Stephen Eide joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss how homeless services are putting pressure on one of New York City's most valued cultural institutions: the New York Public Library. Eide describes the situation in "Disorder in the Stacks," his story in the Spring 2019 Issue of City Journal.

Homelessness has been a challenge for every New York City mayor since the 1970s. Prior to the city's revitalization, the homeless were mostly concentrated in destitute neighborhoods of Manhattan. But today, homeless single adults are an increasingly visible presence in parks, subway stations, and libraries around the city.

"All urban library systems have found themselves in the homeless-services business, with varying degrees of enthusiasm," Eide writes. The New York Public Library spends $12 million annually on security, including training for staff in dealing with potentially threatening patrons. The city needs a comprehensive strategy for dealing with a worsening crisis.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the 10 Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.
0:05.1	Coming up on the show today, one of our contributing editors, Stephen I, joins me to discuss his recent essay for the magazine, Disorder in the Stacks, which looks at homelessness and the problems it's posing for New York's public libraries.
0:18.9	Homelessness has been a challenge for every mayor in New York since the 70s,
0:22.6	but today we'll talk about how the city's struggle to deal with it
0:25.6	is creating new problems for one of our most valued institutions,
0:29.6	the New York Public Library.
0:31.6	Steven's been a guest on the show before,
0:33.6	and I know you'll enjoy the discussion.
0:35.6	Our conversation will begin after this.
0:53.0	Hello again, everyone. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.
0:57.0	Joining us now in the studio is Stephen Eyde.
1:00.0	Stephen is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal.
1:05.0	His recent essay for the magazine Disorder in the Stacks details how services for the homeless are putting a strain on library
1:12.3	resources throughout the city. Stephen, thanks for joining us. Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me.
1:18.3	Homelessness, as we mentioned at the beginning, has been a challenge for every mayor in New York,
1:24.1	really since the 70s. But for this piece, you spent a lot of time visiting different branches of the New York Public
1:29.3	Library.
1:30.4	What you found was a significant number of homeless people sitting in the library rooms,
1:35.2	charging their phones, streaming Netflix, browsing social media, playing video games.
1:40.6	It seems that the public libraries in Midtown Manhattan are sort of morphing into an extension of the city's homeless shelter system.
1:48.1	Why is this happening in your view?
1:49.9	And what has been the reaction of library patrons to this?
	...

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