The DC Public Library is instituting a new and aggressive set of policies against the unhoused community. Libraries serve a critical role in our communities as one of the few public spaces people can exist indoors without the expectation of spending money. They also provide vital services for all members of our communities, ranging from air conditioning to books, computers, and internet, all for free. These kinds of spaces, as crucial as they are – not just for unhoused people and other vulnerable community members, but people of all walks of life – are few and far between. As public spaces become increasingly hostile to unhoused individuals, they have become more hostile to us all and less accessible to those who need them most. For example, despite years of PR optics to the contrary, the DC Public Library has massively reduced the number of available computers at the MLK Jr. Memorial Library’s main computer lab and greatly reduced spaces where people can charge their phones and other necessary electronics in the lab.

According to new library policies, the DC Public Library will prevent people from sleeping outside, or even accessing services such as Wi-Fi after hours, through the use of police. Now people seeking a vital resource such as internet access or refuge in a historically safe space will be at risk of police violence. Policies such as these, which push the unhoused out of public spaces and criminalize their very survival and existence, are well-known to exacerbate the difficult living conditions people experiencing homelessness face. The DC Public Library’s decision to implement these inhumane policies is only adding fuel to the fire of the rapidly growing homelessness crisis in DC and the United States at-large.

Furthermore, it is not lost on us that the disgraced former head of the Downtown DC BID (Business Improvement District) was also on the Library Board of Trustees and was Chair of the Facilities Committee for the MLK Jr. Memorial Library. In addition, the current head of the DCPL Foundation is married to the Chief Strategy Officer at the Downtown BID. The BID has a long history of pushing for and implementing anti-homeless policies across DC, ranging from closing Franklin Square in the middle of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, against CDC guidance, to the routine harassment of visibly unhoused people who dare to stop and sit on a bench within the BID’s territory.

If you, like us, find these incoming policies to be a concerning departure from the role libraries should be serving in our communities, please contact the DC Public Library to express your concern.