Author: John Gehner

Satia Orange in ALA’s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) shared a recent Bill Moyers speech. Delivered to the Council of Great City Schools in October, the address treats inequality in the U.S., including IRS persecution of poor people:

In 2001, 397,000 people who applied for the Earned Income Tax Credit were audited, one out of every 47 returns. That’s a rate eight times higher than the rate for people earning $100,000 or more. Only one out of every 366 returns of wealthy households was audited. Over the previous 11 years, in fact, audit rates for the poor increased by a third, while the wealthiest enjoyed a 90% decline in IRS scrutiny. Of all the 744,000 tax returns audited by the IRS in 2002, more than half, David Cay Johnston finds, were filed by the working poor. More than half of IRS audits targeted people who account for less than 20% of taxpayers, the poorest 20%.

For the complete speech (a PDF), visit:

www.cgcs.org/pdfs/Bill_Moyers.pdf

For more on the IRS and its resistance to public scrutiny, visit:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/current/

On a similar note, Ben Stein writes in The New York Times of Warren Buffett’s frustration with the tax system (“In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning,” Nov. 26, 2006):

Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all.

It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?”

Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare.

“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

November 12-18, 2006, marks National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Advocacy efforts are sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness.

Participating in National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week not only brings greater awareness to your community, but also helps to promote the national endeavor to end hunger and homelessness. The plight of those without a home can be both lonely and difficult. Addressing their struggles by organizing and participating in this week may bring greater solidarity and understanding, as well as promote future involvement … It is imperative to dispel myths that label homelessness as someone else’s problem or claim that an end to homelessness is impossible.

A manual featuring organizing ideas and tips is available as a PDF. For more information, visit www.nationalhomeless.org.

In an article titled “Downtown ‘Problems’ Might not Exist,” the Colorado Springs Business Journal offers another classic example of how commercial interests contribute to the criminalization of homeless people.

The basic formula:

Step 1: Foment unreasonable fear of street people.

Step 2: Employ punitive measures to “manage” them.

The Business Improvement District and Downtown Partnership have set aside $137,000 to address problems caused by the street population by hiring off-duty police officers to patrol downtown, but neither the groups nor the police department have any statistical data to show that “problems” truly exist …

In a white paper entitled “Street People Letter,” [Beth] Kosley, the Downtown Partnership’s executive director, cites several “facts” as reasons why the partnership and the BID need to address the “problem” of the street population.

“Worse, the most recent reports we have received speak to actual physical threats to safety, in the form of mugging, a baby-snatching attempt and robbery in a home by an assailant,” the report says.

When asked about the mugging, baby-snatching attempt and robbery, Kosley referred to the incidents as “anecdotal,” but Gold Hill [Police] Commander Kurt Pillard used another term: urban legend …

Who are “those people”—those men with backpacks and sleeping bags that are causing such alarm that, according to the Downtown Partnership’s white paper, they scared a woman back into her car just by their presence outside the main door of the Penrose Library?

According to Homeward Pikes Peak director Bob Holmes, about 85 percent of the Pike Peak region’s 1,450 homeless are “crisis homeless”—women and children left without homes temporarily. The other 15 percent are chronically homeless …

“It’s important to remember that 62 percent of the people who eat at the Marian House once a day are not homeless,” he said. “They’re the working poor—they have jobs—or they’re retired on fixed incomes. They can afford a place to live, but can’t always afford food.” …

Michael Stoops, acting director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. said the Downtown Partnership’s and BID’s measures are “draconian.”

“There are ways to address the problem that are less expensive,” he said. “If they hired civilian outreach workers to intervene, mediate disputes, do case management, it would be cheaper. Some cities—such as Fort Lauderdale—have tried this and been very successful.”

Read the complete article here:
www.thepbj.com/story.cfm?ID=9887

The May/June 2006 issue of MotherJones compiled some interesting facts illustrating gross extremes between the Haves and the Have-Nots:

If the $5.15 hourly minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO compensation since 1990, it would now stand at $23.03.

A minimum wage employee who works 40 hours a week for 51 weeks a year goes home with $10,506 before taxes.

The $17,530 earned by the average Wal-Mart employee last year was $1,820 below the poverty line for a family of 4.

5 of America’s 10 richest people are Wal-Mart heirs.

A follow-up piece in the July/August 2006 issue of the magazine further illustrates the inequality and disadvantages poor people confront:

51% of the uninsured are $2,000 or more in medical debt. 16% owe at least $10,000.

Inner-city grocery stores sell milk for 43% more than suburban supermarkets.

In Chicago’s poorest areas, the ratio of check-cashing outlets to banks is 10-to-1.

In 2003, the IRS estimated it “protected” $3.1 billion of revenue by cracking down on EITC [Earned Income Tax Credit] filings. Half of all audits are now conducted on taxpayers earning less than $25,000.

The IRS, incidentally, has been involved in an ongoing FOIA-related lawsuit. The agency has resisted public scrutiny of its statistical information. See, for example:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/current/ http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/147/

We’ve just added a “Basic Needs” category to our Resources area. Librarians and low-income people can use the compiled links to find:

• community services referral
• child care
• food assistance
• health care
• legal help
• mental health care
• substance abuse treatment
• and more!

Does your library Web site contain information tailored to the needs of low-income people? Are you looking for examples? Try the New York Public Library’s Community Information page.

The Santa Cruz Public Libraries system has managed a Community Information Database (CID) since 1990. Some context on how it was created:

[The CID] was first developed in 1987. The database was a cooperative effort between five public agencies: Santa Cruz County Human Resources Agency, Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency, United Way, Watsonville Public Library, and the Santa Cruz City-County Library. Funding was provided through a Library Services and Construction Act grant. The goal was to develop a comprehensive database of human service resources available to people in Santa Cruz County.

Who is collecting and distributing information like this in your area? And how can your library play a part?

For potential answers to these questions, consult Information Behavior in Everyday Contexts (IBEC), a research program of The Information School at the University of Washington:

http://ibec.ischool.washington.edu

A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast has been circulating online of late and lists “The 10 Occupations with the Largest Job Growth, 2004-14.”

It will surprise few people that primarily low-wage jobs are identified, ranging from retail salespersons and janitors to home health aides.

For a quick look at the difference a living wage could make for low-wage earners in your area, try the Living Wage Calculator, created by the Poverty in America project at Penn State.

So what’s up with Congress and its reticence in raising the federal minimum wage? A diarist at DailyKos.com describes “caging,” the method by which honest debates about income and family expenses are stifled.

He cites Beth Shulman and her book The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families:

Caging is a way to defeat policy proposals on an entire set of related issues by designing public discourse in a way that makes sure that those issues never get raised …

[P]eople who insist that all people work jobs—any jobs—in order to support their families, must surely also argue that anyone who follows their advice and works full time … should be able to feed his or, more often, her family, right? …

[W]hat happened to the discussions of minimum wage increases, about mandatory livable wages, about guaranteed health insurance? Where are they? You’ll find them, of course, in the cage, right where they know you won’t look.

In 2004, MotherJones interviewed Shulman about her research:

MJ.com: You write that low pay is only one of the problems low-wage workers face.

Beth Shulman: Low-wage workers don’t only make a low wage. Low wage jobs are the least likely to provide health insurance, sick leave, family leave, vacations, pensions. And they’re the most likely to be part time, give fewer hours and less flexibility. They’re often the most hazardous jobs. Low-wage workers get the least training and the least opportunity for advancement if there’s a ladder, which often there isn’t. There’s a whole group of characteristics that make these jobs so difficult. The largest costs for workers and their families are housing, medical expenses, and child-care. It makes life extraordinarily difficult for them.

MJ.com: Have things gotten worse for low-wage workers?

Beth Shulman: The data I looked at were from the best of times, and low-wage workers have been hit disproportionately hard in the downturn. The Bush administration has been disastrous for these workers, from the tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy, to cuts in essential programs like health insurance for children. We’re going in the opposite direction from the one we need to go.

Information professionals can learn more about economic justice (and thriving state-based campaigns) from advocacy groups like ACORN, the Center for Community Change, Change to Win, the Economic Policy Institute, United for a Fair Economy, the Universal Living Wage Campaign, and many others.

American Libraries Online reported the positive news that Worcester (Mass.) Public Library has implemented a new policy to ensure equal access for homeless patrons and others without permanent address.

Worcester Head Librarian Penelope Johnson said in the Telegram and Gazette that everyone who has a library card will be treated equally; they can take out two items during their first visit and up to 50 thereafter. Homeless patrons or patrons living in shelters will be mailed a postcard, which they can bring back with them to the library as proof that they can receive mail.

As the article indicates, the lawsuit filed against the library has not yet been resolved. And despite the library’s insistence about poor book return rates among low-income patrons, no borrowing statistics have ever been made public.

The policy change is not so much a “win” for homeless people—who should not have been discriminated against in the first place—but more a case study of the disconnect between a library and the needs of low-income citizens.

Las Vegas, Orlando, and other cities have made it difficult, even illegal, to give food to homeless people in public places. Tulin Ozdeger, an attorney with the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, is critical of such punitive ordinances:

The latest trend of restricting groups that share food with homeless people is truly baffling. Clear gaps exist between the needs of homeless and poor people and federal, state, and local government efforts to deal with homelessness. Instead of embracing private efforts to fill those gaps, cities are now trying to punish those private actors for their good deeds … Instead of wasting law enforcement resources on enforcing these laws … cities should be looking for more constructive ways to grapple with the real challenges facing them. Removing a crucial food source … will not solve the problem. Jailing a homeless person for sleeping or resting in a public space will not make that person go away.

In Steamboat Springs, Colo., two men were recently sentenced to six months in prison for removing food from a garbage can:

Giles Charle, 24, of Sumersworth, N.H., and David Siller, 27, of Wayne, Pa., … were on their way to the Rainbow Family’s annual gathering when they were arrested in June and charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor theft. Authorities said they took five cucumbers, four or five apricots, two bundles of asparagus spears and a handful of cherries from a garbage can at Sweet Pea Produce. The two pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing Wednesday and the felony charge was dropped.

Hunger is increasing in the United States. According to America’s Second Harvest, food is the second-largest family expense and the use of emergency food assistance is growing:

America’s Second Harvest / The Nation’s Food Bank Network provides emergency food assistance to more than 25 million Americans—including nearly 9 million children (36.4%) and 3 million seniors (10%)—annually. Since 2001, the number of clients the America’s Second Harvest Network serves annually has increased by 8 percent … 70% of client households served are food insecure, meaning they do not know where they will find their next meal. 33% of these households are experiencing hunger, meaning they are completely without a source of food.

In June 2002, the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University published “The Consequences of Hunger and Food Insecurity for Children: Evidence from Recent Scientific Studies.” The report (PDF) notes, among other things:

Even moderate nutritional vulnerability, the kind often seen among 13 million high-risk children in the U.S., can impede cognitive development and impair their capacities over a lifetime. For youngsters whose natural abilities and talents are diminished, the cost is obvious. But the cost also extends to our nation in terms of higher rates of school failure, poorer returns on our
educational investments, and weakened workforce productivity when children reach the age of employment.

How can libraries address hunger? Many sponsor “Food for Fines” drives (which a simple Google search will reveal). In 2001, Amy Ford detailed the Williamsburg (Va.) Regional Library’s efforts in “Food for Fines Drives: Positive PR That Works!”:

We made our Food for Fines system very simple: For each nonperishable food item a patron brings in, we waive the accrued fines on one overdue item, no matter whether it is 5 cents or $15 … We benefit by getting back some late and lost books. Plus we get our delinquent patrons to come back. Many of them feel bad about owing money to the library that they can’t pay back … they do come back, and they feel good about doing something meaningful for their community in the process. We also gain respect from other community entities, which are continually amazed at the countless ways that the library contributes to the public good. Our local nonprofits and charities are very grateful for the help they receive from us. Staff morale improves, and now circulation staff receive far fewer complaints about fines.

On September 9, the St. Paul Public Library celebrates the grand opening of its Rondo Community Outreach Library.

The unique facility, which features three floors of mixed-income housing, will serve an ethnically diverse population, including many recent immigrants and low-income families. Rondo’s collection includes

an expanded Black history collection with original Rondo Oral History recordings; a Southeast Asian history and culture area; more adult learner and language learning materials with over 500 titles in Spanish, a large selection of Somali music and in-depth resources for English Language Learners; [and more].

The name Rondo memorializes St. Paul’s Rondo Avenue and its legendary African-American neighborhood, displaced and destroyed by the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s.

In the 1930s, Rondo Avenue was at the heart of St. Paul’s largest Black neighborhood. African-Americans whose families had lived in Minnesota for decades and others who were just arriving from the South made up a vibrant, vital community that was in many ways independent of the white society around it.

Three Rondo resources worth noting:

• Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul’s Historic Black Community, published by Hand in Hand Productions, won a 2006 Minnesota Book Award.

• A Rondo Days Celebration is held every year during the third week of July.

• Macalaster College’s Civic Engagement Center provides a “Rondo & Surroundings Self-Guided Tour” (PDF).

ALA Policy 61—Library Services for the Poor was adopted in 1990. It promotes, among other things, “the removal of all barriers to library and information services, particularly fees and overdue charges.”

This spring, The Christian Science Monitor published an article titled “Is the Lifting of Library Fines Long Overdue?”. Writer Marilyn Gardner observes,

As libraries face competition from the Internet, Amazon, and bookstores, some are looking for ways to be more customer-friendly. At the same time, book-lovers point to Netflix and Blockbuster, which have eliminated fines for overdue movie rentals, and suggest that libraries do the same. Yet tight municipal budgets are making many libraries more dependent than ever on revenue from fines—so dependent that some even hire collection agencies.

Librarian.net’s Jessamyn West and readers of her site share anecdotes that illustrate the variety of issues at stake, not least of which is a patron’s ability to pay fines. West writes,

I did outreach for a public library and found that, almost without exception, the teens I met who did not come to the library stayed away because they believed they had huge fines and were, in some way, no longer welcome. Our library fines were steep—twenty cents per day for books with no grace period, one dollar per day for DVDs and videos—and once you hit five dollars you could no longer check out materials or use the library computers …

Members of the PUBLIB list have been discussing these matters of late, with a particular interest in how fees and fines—and the language used to describe them—impact a library’s public image.

Bill Crowley, a library-science professor at Dominican University, made explicit his concerns about low-income patrons in a post titled “Fines, Counterproductive Service, and Problematic PR.” His post is reprinted here with permission:

The cheerful march to raise fines may be well received in wealthy communities but have any of the libraries involved actually studied the potential impact on discouraging use by those on, near, or below the poverty line?

Before continuing the discussion I would suggest going to [www.laurabushfoundation.org] (which hosts the presentations from Laura Bush’s White House Conference on School Libraries) and clicking to “The Role of School Libraries in Elementary and Secondary Education” [PDF] by Dr. Susan Neuman (former) Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education United States Department of Education.

Do not let the title fool you. The presentation is actually devoted to comparing public library use by children in Philadelphia’s middle class and poor neighborhoods. The account of how the fear of fines and lost book charges affects borrowing in poor neighborhoods is discouraging. In-building use seems to be unaffected.

So, before one happily raises fines outside of wealthy communities, one might want to consider how poor kids or adults can “work off” the fines and keep both their self-respect and ability to borrow library books.

Here, I should note that prior to teaching in a graduate program I had 23 years of real life experience in public, state, and cooperative libraries, including stints in public relations.

Susan Neuman’s brief (six-page) paper, which Crowley cites, provides research findings that no doubt apply to many other cities—evidence that should prompt improved service to low-income populations.

Despite similarities in budget allocations, there were striking differences in the quality of school libraries in schools across [Philadelphia]. Children in poor areas had mediocre to poor libraries, no librarian on site; further the libraries were often closed during the week, compared to those in middle-class schools in the same city … School library funds were designated as discretionary to be used for computers if the instructional leader chose to do so. Thus, many of these schools in poor areas had no libraries, but computer labs, often empty of anything but the technology itself.

Finally, Martina Kominiarek at Bucks County (Penn.) Free Library contributed an equally well-informed PUBLIB post on fines, which you can read here.