James Patton, who spent years living at The Pines, says about homeless gathering around the library, “They don’t want people loitering,” Patton said. “Most of the time there’s a group of us that hang up by the library and a lot of people have been calling, and I get it. I understand there’s children around, you shouldn’t be cussing and swearing and doing all that stuff around children.”

Same crowd, new location.

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It isn’t exactly a revelation that the library has long doubled as a de-facto safe place for those with nowhere else to go. Back in 2021, the Traverse City Ticker did a report on the homeless at the library reporting that the homeless situation had been spilling over into public places including TADL. They highlighted “dozens” of incidents at TADL at the time.

TADL Director Michele Howard had said in 2021, “Sometimes, what we see – and what we’re seeing this year a lot earlier than in past years – is a rising number of people who have trouble conforming to the rules of behavior in the library. Sometimes that’s drinking. Sometimes it’s just being really loud, or using colorful language. Sometimes it’s drug use or smoking at our entrance. This year (2021), those things have just been a lot worse than other years for us.”

Traverse City Police Department Chief Jeffrey O’Brien had also said in 2021 that the many calls received led to walk throughs and property inspections but there were also others that were more severe. He pointed to an incident where a homeless individual lighted toilet paper on fire in one of the bathrooms and another time where an ambulance had to be called because some of the homeless were so intoxicated that they couldn’t be woken up. Additionally, TADL staff had to use naloxone in some instances – a medicine that reverses opioid overdoses.

The current situation.

Michigan News Source reached out to Howard for comment following the closure of The Pines encampment. She reported that the library has seen a noticeable uptick in homeless individuals and related incidents – 17 in May of this year compared to just one during the same month last year.

Safe Harbor does not allow daytime stays, which has left some homeless individuals, even those who are using the shelter, without a place to go during the day where they otherwise would have stayed in their tents in The Pines. Some have chosen not to move from The Pines to the overnight shelter at all, saying they don’t want to follow the shelter’s rules. And although the local Safe Harbor shelter now offers 74 year-round emergency beds, it’s still not enough to meet demand. They report having to turn away between two to five people each night – most of them men – due to capacity limits.

Another shelter, the Jubilee House, is a day shelter that doesn’t allow overnight stays.

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Howard added about the situation at the library, “The Board decided to pay for security guards year- round which helps prevent any incidents from being disruptive for staff and patrons.”