Doors remain shut at libraries across the Halifax Regional Municipality, including Halifax North Memorial Library — where the loss of community service is being felt deeply.
“It’s somewhere I can come and not feel alone anymore,” library patron Tracey said. “There’s lots of times I don’t know what I would do without this place.”
Tracey, who did not provide her last name, has been sleeping rough for more than a year and depends on these safe spaces.
“I’m homeless, I live in a tent,” she said. “It can be pretty miserable. This is somewhere warm to come, it’s somewhere where there’s clean water.”
A vascular disease means Tracey has lost some of her fingers, so washing her hands in warm water at the library brings her comfort from chronic pain.
Now, with the library closed, she has to make the walk over to Spring Garden Road for similar access to services. But nothing can replace the support she gets from her community navigator at the library, Shannon Hansen, who is now on strike.
“We’re the last stop for everybody, no matter what is going on socially,” Hansen said.
“Whether it’s housing issues, whether it’s drug issues, we’re like the ending and the beginning of everything that you’re going to get.”
Hansen’s role at the branch is to connect vulnerable patrons to resources in the community — but his work goes much further than that.
Multiple times per week, he responds to overdoses in library bathrooms — administering naloxone and calling an ambulance.
Due to the strike, that service is not being provided.
“There are people that are laying there somewhere right now that aren’t going to get found for 12 hours, 24 hours — until it’s too late,” warned Hansen.
Halifax Central Library community navigator Sheena Jamieson said libraries are often the only safe space that vulnerable people have.
“We don’t want to be out here, we want to be in the library providing service,” Jamieson said. “But we need a livable wage and job and stabilization to do that for people. We can’t do that if we ourselves are struggling.”
She said the workers want to break down barriers to access — not just for information, but for community resources as well.
“I use the phone, I use the computer, I use the bathroom for crying out loud,” Tracey said.
“I can come in and curl up in one of the chairs if I haven’t slept all night and crash for a few hours and know that I’m safe.”
Tracey hopes a deal can be struck to return to service, as people’s lives depend on it.
Before the strike began, Hansen was working with Tracey to find a new, safer place to set up her tent — going above and beyond to support her care.