Lissa,

If you have a nearby library you may find them helpful in how to handle the
homeless.  (make an appointment with the Library Director) Libraries post a
Code of Conduct and hold visitors accountable.

Staff and volunteers might find a prepared script helpful; that way all
staff & volunteers chant the same rhetoric when encountering unpleasant /
unwelcome visitors. If there are valid safety concerns, ask local law
enforcement what to be aware of, request an officer to provide a brief
training and make a staff safety book (reference for volunteers when no
staff are available)

If you are in a private building that is housed on City property - talk to
City Hall. Know your local municipal codes.  Consider posting a state
statute that is relevant to the issue(s). The city attorney might have a
suggestion about this.

An example of posting a state statue (RCW in Washington State) is the
driver license office in North Bend, WA.  Posted in large clear font over
the customer service desk was the RCW about not harassing the staff. Point
made.
As welcoming as you may want to be - you must protect your people and
property. Word of mouth marketing about a homeless problem is not the
publicity any museum wants to encounter. Good luck.

Cathy Campbell


On Sun, Sep 8, 2013 at 2:33 PM, Lissa Kramer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> In the somewhat sensitive topic of maintaining security while upholding
> the civil rights of a vulnerable audience, does anyone have an example of a
> written policy for a small museum?  I am doing a volunteer training soon
> and am writing our policy now so that we will be able to provide direction
> to the volunteers before they encounter a difficult situation.
>
> The context is that our museum is a wooden structure and a Nationally
> Registered Historic building that is mostly volunteer maintained, but owned
> by the local government.  There is a food bank located a block away and our
> next door neighbor is a senior center, a vulnerable population.  Our
> community's homeless. also a vulnerable population, in an effort to shelter
> near their food source, frequently beds down on both of our museum
> properties, on and inside of large outdoor artifacts, mostly made of wood
> and metal.  They sleep and hang out on our decks under rail carts and in
> our coal car.  Often, there are cigarettes smoked among whatever bedding
> they bring in, usually highly flammable materials.  Occasionally, some of
> these folks have attempted to go from their encampment on the museum
> grounds into the the senior center.  They are often inebriated,
> occasionally disruptive to museum functions.  They are not all inebriated
> or disruptive.  Some our volunteer docents have indicated to me that they
> do not feel safe approaching folks smoking in bedding next to the building
> to ask them to leave, or asking disruptive, potentially inebriated people
> to leave.  None of the homeless folks ever seem to attempt to come in to
> the museum to view it but some are very comfortable walking in without a
> word and using the bathrooms; they have several times walked in to our
> rental room while renters were holding an event or teaching class and
> wordlessly used the bathroom.  We also recently found one of these
> individuals going through our refrigerator where renters and volunteers had
> their lunches.
>
> We seem to have a very transient homeless population, without any
> recognizable "regulars".  Other museums I have worked for have had
> "regulars" with whom they have arrived at some type of equilibrium; in one
> case it resulted in a homeless individual saving us from a robbery at risk
> to themselves from the potential perpetrator.  I am very much a proponent
> of allowing the homeless access public property such as parks, libraries,
> and museums, as it is one of the few means they have of normalizing
> themselves in society.
>
> How do we manage the security needs of preserving the building, the safety
> needs of our volunteers and staff, and provide public service to our
> community's homeless population?
>
> Thank you for your advice and any written policy examples you can provide,
>
> Lissa Kramer
>
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