A San Francisco library is popping off Wi-Fi at evening to maintain individuals with out housing from utilizing it

In San Francisco’s District 8, a public library has shut down its after-hours Wi-Fi for nearly a year. The measure, quietly implemented in mid-2022, came at the request of neighbors and the office of city manager Rafael Mandelman. It’s an attempt to keep city dwellers currently homeless out of the area by shutting down access to one of the library’s most valuable public services.

A local activist known as HDizz revealed details behind the move last month by tweeting public recordings of an email exchange between residents and the city government office in July 2022. In the emails, residents complained of overt drug use and sidewalk blocking by unaccommodated residents. One shared a second-hand story about a librarian who had been followed to her car. In response, they asked the library to limit WiFi availability. “Why are tramps and drug addicts so attracted to the library?” one person asked rhetorically. “It’s the free 24/7 WiFi.”

San Francisco libraries have historically been progressive in providing resources to people who are homeless and even hiring specialists to offer assistance. But on Aug. 1, city librarian Michael Lambert met with Mandelman’s office to discuss the issue, the San Francisco publication Mission Local reports. The next day, the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial branch in District 8 began turning off its Wi-Fi after hours — a policy that Jaime Wong, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), told The Verge via email remains today still exist.

Libraries are one of the most visible options for bridging the digital divide – a term for the internet access gap between disadvantaged and financially secure communities. The American Library Association notes that they provide an “important life-transformation opportunity” for underserved communities. But it has also gotten her in the middle of difficult debates about how to deal with homelessness.

“For me, free WiFi is his only lifeline [or] by the way, any crisis services or whatever.”

In the first few months after the decision, the library did not appear to have received any complaints. But in March, just over seven months after the change, the company received a request for the policy to be withdrawn. “I’m concerned about my boyfriend,” the email reads, “whom I want to place in long-term inpatient treatment.” San Francisco has emergency shelters, but the applicant said her boyfriend was having trouble with the Communicate with staff and finds it difficult to be around people who use drugs. Because this friend doesn’t have regular cell service, “free WiFi is his only lifeline for me.” [or] by the way, any crisis services or whatever.”

The resident said some residents in the neighborhood “don’t understand what they’re doing to us who are poor or homeless through some of the things they’re doing here.”

Library staff received the request, but Lambert wrote that he was “less inclined to focus our attention on the after-hours WiFi request.” He declined a social services director’s offer to collect information about other free Wi-Fi sources – asking only for advice on mental health or suicide prevention.

Some residents scoffed at the value of 24/7 online access. “[We] NO PROOF has been provided that it does anything [to] “Bridge the digital divide,” as the library claims,” ​​it said in an email.

At the same time, however, it is difficult to determine whether the limits have resulted in a reduction in crime or “nuisance” in the neighborhood. In 2017, then-District 8 Warden Jeff Sheehy asked the library to investigate whether shutting down Wi-Fi would curb crime, and the library stated in its report that there was insufficient data to make any firm conclusions. In 2021, an even broader look was made after a District 8 resident asked for it and was still having trouble finding a link.

Legislative adviser Jackie Thornhill told The Verge in an email that “obviously the presence or absence of 24/7 WiFi alone isn’t going to make much of a difference,” but she believes that’s one of many reasons why the Library activity is so attractive to criminals. Thornhill also sent a chart of 911 calls which she says shows crime has gone down over the past nine months.

District 8 has tried other approaches to help. A personal outreach program for people affected by homelessness was advocated by Mandelman and appears to be having some success, while in early May he and the rest of San Francisco’s board of directors launched an appeal for the city to fund 2,000 new shelter beds and temporary housing.

Wong emailed The Verge that Eureka Valley is the only branch in town that turns off its Wi-Fi after hours and that SFPL has no official policy to keep Wi-Fi on at night. But she also said that “incidents of vandalism and other criminal behavior at the Eureka Valley Branch Library remain low and consistent with previous years.”

HDizz launched an email campaign in May to persuade the library to turn WiFi back on. Over 50 current and former residents took part over a period of two days. Most use HDizz’s template, but one local resident – who said he once worked in data analysis – said the connection between WiFi and crime “would be laughed at in the first week of a Statistics 001 class”. Another, from a former resident who says he now sits on the Contra Costa County Library Commission, argues that “Closing [off] WiFi for those who need it will not eliminate homelessness, let alone help people find resources.”

“Efforts like turning off Wi-Fi only make homelessness worse.”

In a phone interview with The Verge, HDizz described the decision to limit Wi-Fi as part of a broader campaign of hostility and insufficient support for the homeless in San Francisco. On Twitter, she points to coordinated camp clearing efforts that have led to an ongoing lawsuit against the city.

So far, it’s not clear if other libraries will follow Eureka Valley’s example. But San Francisco is at the epicenter of a broader struggle over issues like homelessness in America — including between Silicon Valley’s tech moguls, who blame progressive politics and homeless residents for violence even if they are later found to be wrong.

Jennifer Friedenbach of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness asked The Verge in a phone interview if turning off Wi-Fi at night would help: “People aren’t out on the streets voluntarily. They are penniless and have no other options. Efforts like turning off Wi-Fi only make homelessness worse and have the opposite effect. Putting that energy into fighting for housing for homeless neighbors would be far more effective.”