South Tucson's
English Spanish Newspaper
February/febrero 2002
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Department of Journalism, University of Arizona, Tucson. Copyright 2001 mplaints concerning this topic, but I brought it up at the Weed and Seed meeting in order to get feedback from the community about it and what suggestions they may have," said Molina.
A lawyer present at the meeting told the group that "legally that there is not much that can be done, because the homeless are not violating any laws or breaking any rules."
While there has not been any sort of violence or dispute on the libraryŐs grounds, Molina said he fears the situation holds the potential for problems.
"Our public library has turned into a homeless shelter, I want to get the kids back in it. And in order to do that, I need to get the homeless out," said Molina.
The first course of action will be to speak with each shelterŐs director and work with them on a way to discourage the homeless from congregating at the library. Molina said if that does not work, he might try to gather the homeless and speak with them himself.
Because the homeless are breaking no laws while using the facilities at the library, the police are limited in their actions. "Honestly, this situation does not bother my staff or me, but if it is deterring people from coming to the library, something needs to be done," said Grijalva.
However, Grijalva fears that there is not a solution unless the organizations that help the homeless are moved to another location, which is unlikely.
Molina said he is counting on voluntary compliance from the shelters and the homeless to be the quickest fix, while still respecting everyoneŐs rights.
"I would like to make this a win-win situation involved for everyone, especially the children of South Tucson," said Molina.
Molina said he plans on making this one of his top priorities and will begin campaigning to the local shelters about the problem within the next couple weeks.
