Emilio Estevez

Emilio EstevezPete Morawski, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEmilio Estevez is an American writer, director and actor who has recently made a powerful film about homelessness called public.

According to the organization Homelessness in America, "on any given night in the United States, more than half a million people experience homelessness." Low income, income instability, domestic violence, and a shortage of affordable housing can all lead to homelessness. The homeless are vulnerable to violence and sexual assault. 

The film takes place in Cincinnati, Ohio, where a freezing cold winter bring things to a standoff between the homeless library patrons, a public librarian, the police, and the law. When a homeless man is found dead outside the library, due to staying outside in the cold overnight, several homeless patrons refuse to leave when there are not enough shelters in the city.

Estevez said he was inspired by an essay by a librarian who quit his job because he felt the library had become a homeless shelter. This is not what they were trained for in library school. One example: librarians had to have narcan to treat drug overdoses in the library. The script first came to him in 2007, and sadly, notes the homelessness crisis has gotten worse since then.¹

The word obligation makes some people uncomfortable. There are many in this country who look at the homeless and consider their situation “regrettable but inevitable since some people are bound to fail”...in the context of this question I would substitute the word obligation with moral imperative. It is a moral imperative for libraries and other public spaces to help the homeless and other populations in need. If you possess a beating heart, that is as close to an inarguable statement as you are likely to hear. Unfortunately, there are many along political divides who are seemingly ­heartless.²

Oleg Kagan, a librarian who reviewed the movie, noted the film's authenticity, and expresses the wish the film could be screened for communities with a discussion afterwards, so that real change could come about in those communities.³

Homelessness is a problem many wish to look away from, and Estevez has made a admirable artistic choice in choosing to create a story centered around homelessness, bring public attention to this crisis, and motivate communities and policy makers to solve this intractable problem.