4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER JANUARY 26, 2024 Ann Arbor District Library shuts its doors on the unhoused prior to the MLK holiday Far from closing its doors during the first storm of the season, one would have expected the Ann Arbor District Library to offer a respite, a warming center for those at risk of being exposed to the elements during the threatening weather. Instead, it displayed glaring unconcern and seemed oblivious to the crisis of the unhoused. Closing its doors during this critical time serves as a statement shedding light on the library's stance and role in the homeless crisis. While the library is not the only location that could have opened its doors, it is significant because, like many libraries across the country, it serves as an unofficial day center for those without housing. Without a doubt, libraries are on the frontlines of the unhoused. How they respond to their role varies. American Library Association president Lessa Kananiopua Pelayo-Ozado reminds us, “… library services and facilities are for everyone, the housed and unhoused ...” Without question, the unhoused person has come to rely on the libraries to escape the elements during the day safely. Official or not, it is a day center. So when the Ann Arbor District Library announced that it would close its doors where he would wait out the impending storm. It bore an eerie juxtaposition to the enlarged snapshot of Dr. King’s image hanging inside a library stairwell. In the Lego-created image donated LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 early at 3 p.m. on the day of the season’s first storm, it felt like a hoax. The decision resulted in many unhoused people being left on the street searching for a place to be, walking through the thick drops of falling snow during the intervening hours before the night warming center would open its doors at 5:30 p.m. Most could not use restaurants; purchasing food requires money that most unhoused individuals lack. Some people sat inside Starbucks where the water was free. But perhaps the most jarring image was of a man sitting just outside the locked doors of Ann Arbor District Library, legs outstretched, back serenely resting on a library column to the library by Eastern Michigan University biology professor Aaron Liepman, Dr. King is forever frozen in time, arms interlocked with other justice warriors in a perpetual march towards justice and freedom. It offers library-goers hope and a glimpse of history as they climb the library stairs between the first and second floors. The library website says that Liepman used over 16,000 handpainted Lego bricks to create the 90 x 40 image, inspired by a photo of the Selma to Montgomery March. It reveals how quickly one crisis is supplanted with another and how the dynamic of racial injustice is far from being the only fight of our times. It shows the timeless nature of persistence and that the struggle for humanitarian rights is as present in this generation as ever. The symbolism is also a powerful reminder that the march for freedom is not stagnant and that the spirit of Dr. King's fight to ensure freedom for all is eternal. However, the library closing during the winter storm cast a shadow over the planned events for the holiday celebrating Dr. King's legacy. While the scheduled events for MLK Day still transpired, it was clear that the library was out of sync, even oblivious to the injustices facing the unhoused. There were two live streams at the library on that day. One, the retelling of the Selma to Montgomery march. Another was hosted by Veterans for Peace, where veterans considered what Dr. King’s view on militarism would be today. There were several suggested videos on Dr. King’s life. But the journey to freedom is much more than a set of perfectly planned events for a holiday. Nor can it be confined to one time period and certainly not one set of people. It continues throughout the decades, challenging and overcoming all the injustices that seek to bind the human spirit. The Ann Arbor District Library may not be in step with the injustices of the unhoused, but like the image in its stairwell, Dr. King’s march towards freedom includes all people and will forever be in motion. “Go where?” Camps evicted on private and public land during winter storm Monday, January 8, a notice was stuck to Mikey’s tent. It read: “Important Notice: Your Property Manager/Landlord/Mortgage Company requested and was granted an ‘Order of Eviction’ by the District Court listed on the attached official order of eviction. Be advised that you and your possessions can be evicted (removed) from the rented/mortgaged space 24 hours after this posting/service…” 24 hours. 24 hours to relocate five campers, three dogs and all their belongings in the middle of winter and at the front end of a 10-day polar vortex. The added threat of a bulldozer coming early in the morning made the situation that much worse. Christie and Mooch were less than seven days away from moving into their housing. Krystal is still recovering from being hit by a car while biking not even 200 feet from this campsite in Ypsilanti. Mikey relocated his camp to a new area, but that was also tagged Public land gives no graces Friday, January 12, at a different camp — this time one that is located on Ypsilanti City property — a “No Trespassing” sign was erected. Five people arrived at Marie's tent (not her real name) to inform her she needed to move. “Nobody formally identified themLINDSAY CALKA Publisher midway through the move. Their camp was taken to court by property and business owner Joe Sesi. No matter how morally wrong the situation might seem, the campers were not granted permission to be there, and so the courts ordered their removal. Property rules. The bulldozers still haven't come; the only urgency was that Sesi wanted them gone. The property has been sitting vacant for 11 years. selves. It could have been people playing dress-up. It could have been anyone. A group of people just showed up at my tent door telling me I had to move; hours before the snowstorm hit,” Marie said. Two PATH [Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness] workers, one cop, and two city employees were there just to put up the sign. This was the first in-person contact Marie had with PATH since the first time she called HAWC in the last week of November. “Where were they when I needed them?” she wondered. “They came and said I was on City property and I needed to move the tent and that other people [neighbors] were also being asked to move. They asked see EVICTED page 11 "No Trespassing" signed erected at an encampment in Ypsilanti by City staff on January 12.
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