The Halifax library strike and its heavy impact on the city’s unhoused

Libraries across HRM remain closed after workers walked off the job on Monday. One woman experiencing homelessness says libraries offer her a safe space and 'not feel alone.'

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.”