Designating the Portland State student union as a non-public building would have a disparate impact on people who are marginalized, critics say
For someone living on the street and looking for a place indoors to get a little shelter, things are getting more restrictive and complicated.
Like other parts of society, public spaces, such as libraries, are grappling with how to deal with people experiencing homelessness, many of whom suffer from mental health and addiction issues. Officials at these public places say they are trying to balance the sometimes conflicting needs and desires of those using these spaces, prompting new rules directly affecting access for people on the streets.
The latest example is a proposal by Portland State University to put new restrictions on the use of its Smith Memorial Student Union building, a bustling a four-story facility that houses food vendors, sitting areas, student-activity offices and a daycare center. Currently, a member of the public can enter the building to buy a food or drink item, sit for a while or use a restroom.
Under the proposal, the student union would be added to the list of “non-public” areas on campus, a grouping that includes classrooms, faculty offices and laboratories. Under written university policy, members of the general public “are prohibited from use of non-public University facilities except upon the authorization of the person-in-charge.”
But the university intends to use a less restrictive approach at the student union, said Dan Zalkow, PSU’s associate vice president for planning, construction and real estate. When a university-sponsored or -approved event is held at the student union, officials would decide whether to exclude the public from part or all of the building. He said he couldn’t give an estimate of how many times a year such restrictions might be invoked.
Asked what prompted the proposed status change, Zalkow said, “we had an increasing number of folks who have events in the building who were concerned that we can’t be more restrictive about who can be around.” At certain times, “seating areas have a lot of people who are not officially with the university,” he said. He estimated that there are “a few dozen whom we assume are houseless, non-affiliated people who are in the building a lot.”
The idea of designating the student union as non-public “runs counter to the university’s commitment to creating a welcoming space,” said Marisa Zapata, an associate professor at PSU and director of the university’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative. Zapata said she has expressed her “serious concerns” to university officials.
“I am very concerned that there will be a disparate impact on people who are poor, people of color, people who are mentally ill, and people who are homeless, some of whom are students and staff,” she told Street Roots.
Zalkow acknowledged there is a “lot of risk of profiling people.” If the student union is declared non-public, anyone not affiliated with the university could be told to leave at any time. “It does give us that authority,” he said. “It is not our plan.”
If the status change is approved, guidelines will be written detailing how to carry out the policy at the student union, he said. “It is important that the person enforcing the policy treats everyone equally and respectfully and doesn’t make assumptions about someone based on appearance,” he said.
Zapata’s response: before changing the building’s status “let us see that implementation plan.”
The proposal to change the student union’s designation has been put out for public comment through March 9. The policy could go into effect as early as late March, Zalkow said. “I expect of good bit of comments” on the proposal.
India Wynne first heard about the proposal from a faculty member, who apparently assumed that as a Marine veteran, the 44-year-old PSU senior would support the idea of restricting access. He was wrong.
The faculty member didn’t know that several years ago Wynne had been homeless, living in New York and desperate. With hard work and the help of others, Wynne rebounded and is now on the road to getting a social-work degree and going to graduate school in that field.
Many people, Wynne said, view the homeless “as an inconvenience. But humanity is not an inconvenience.” Acting on that faculty member’s request to reach out to “like-minded students,” Wynne has been contacting others to build opposition to the proposal and possibly hold a rally to protest it.
“We want to shine some light on this,” Wynne said.
At PSU, the question of access goes beyond just the student union. After the 2018 fatal shooting of an individual by campus police, the university hired the firm of Margolis Healy & Associates to do a security and safety management assessment. The firm spoke with or surveyed PSU students, faculty and staff as well as members of the public.
In its February 2019 report , Margolis Healy stated, “We frequently heard concerns about the use of campus facilities by non-affiliates, specifically houseless individuals. The University owes it to its campus community to clarify how it will permit non-affiliates to use its facilities.” It added, "This issue is likely to be a contentious one given the diverse opinions about how to address houseless individuals who may be using campus facilities for using drugs, taking showers, or sleeping.”
The report cited complaints along these lines concerning the Millar Library and the Academic and Student Recreation Center, or ASRC. This situation, “particularly the use of opioids in campus restrooms, undermines the University’s fundamental obligation to provide a reasonably safe environment for its members,” it added.
The Healy report is not without its detractors. The HRAC criticized the report for how often it conflates homelessness with drug use and criminality, when those behaviors are seen among both housed and unhoused invididuals. The committee said the report reinforces false and damaging misinformation about people experiencing homelessness, and noted that of those surveyed who reported feeling unsafe, only a fraction said they felt unsafe because of homeless/non-students in the building. “This corresponds to 61 students, only 1.5% of all 4,145 who were surveyed, yet the terms ‘homeless’ or ‘houseless’ appear in the report a total of 86 times.”
Besides housing the student recreation center, the ASRC has academic and student workspaces, retail businesses and the university’s Welcome Center. Last summer, the university reduced the time the building was unlocked to the public by as much as four hours a day on weekdays. On weekends, it’s unlocked just four hours on Saturday morning. Previously, it was unlocked 11 hours daily on Saturday and Sunday. “There were at times people non-affiliated with PSU in random places in the building, and that was one of the factors in the change in building hours,” said Zalkow.
At the university library, the Margolis Healy report recommended that members of the university community could enter through turnstiles using their campus identification cards. “Visitors can check in with library staff who can verify the purpose of the visit,” the report stated.
Thomas Bielavitz, dean of the campus library, said that “over the past year, we’ve received a number of complaints from students about theft and other safety concerns in the library.” While members of the public are still welcome, “the purpose of the library is for academic pursuits, and those not using the library appropriately may be asked to leave.”
Bielavitz said the library is looking at using turnstiles for people entering with university ID and a separate entry point staffed by an employee for members of the public. One possibility is having the staffer ask each the people why they’re coming to the library, he said. Another is having the staffer check each person’s ID. “Our hope is that individuals coming to the prey upon students will not want to enter if they are required to show ID,” he said. No final decisions have yet been made.
The 19 locations of the Multnomah County Library are a major attraction for many homeless people as somewhere to get a brief respite. The library system has instituted a number of programs aimed at helping homeless people. At the same time, security has been beefed up and usage rules modified, which have contributed to an increase in the number of expulsions from the library for rule violations.
The aim is to “make sure we are open and welcoming to everyone but also that everyone feels relatively safe,” said Vailey Oehlke, director of the libraries for Multnomah County. While that’s always been the library’s goal, accomplishing it these days “seems a little more complex,” she said. “Or maybe a lot more complex,” she added with a laugh.
“For the unhoused, the library is a refuge. It is an important part of their life,” said Oehlke. Among the services being offered: two library social workers to help individuals in crisis; a twice monthly writing workshop geared toward people who are homeless; a monthly coffee-and-snack gathering at the main library downtown that gives homeless patrons and others a chance to get to know staffers. The library organized a fair aimed at connecting houseless people with service providers. It has added naloxone kits to reverse opioid overdoses and containers to safely dispose of syringes.
PREVIOUSLY: Social worker to help library defuse crises (from 2015)
However, “there has been an enormous increase” in disruptive behavior, such as yelling and throwing things, said Oehlke. Two staffers have been physically attacked, neither seriously injured.
Since 2017, the library system has more than doubled its security program budget to over $1.6 million and increased the number of library safety officers to 11 from four.
Library-use rules, revised In 2017, added two new reasons a person could be told to leave the library. One is bringing in more belongings than can be “carried in a single trip and stored under a library chair or table without disturbing others.” The other: bringing in “an unauthorized weapon.”
In 2019, the number of violations that prompted an exclusion from the library rose 38% to more than 2,900 from the year earlier. These statistics don’t show the actual number of people affected since if a person is excluded for more than one violation, each transgression is counted.
The most frequent reason for being removed was the category of “disruptive behavior/abusive language or gestures.” That reason was cited more than 1,650 times over the two-year period. Other frequent rule violations: disobeying staff instructions include criminal activity; intoxication and sleeping and drug or alcohol possession. Unauthorized weapons possession got cited 35 times and bringing in excess belongings five times.
The library said it doesn’t have comparable statistics for the years before 2018. “Anecdotally, I’d say the number and severity has been ticking up since well before then,” said Shawn Cunningham, the library’s director of communications and strategic initiatives. Currently, 789 individuals are barred from the library for varying periods of time, he said.
Oehlke, the library director, said that when she started at the library more than 20 years ago homelessness wasn’t much of a topic of discussion. Today, she said, “it is a different environment.”
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