Homeless patrons find the library a safe, normalizing place. It provides a comfortable, climate-controlled environment. Streetworkers from agencies serving this population seek clients in the library since it is known as a place where homeless congregate. Many patrons are looking for a place to sleep, eat or bathe, and they could benefit from referrals to places supporting these activities. Formalizing, making consistent and promoting the availability of streetworkers at the library has benefited all. Library staff is able to focus on promoting and delivering library services while making appropriate and respectful referrals for services not available in the library. For example, sharing information about the availability of library cards to people without a permanent address. This is particularly important because computer access requires a card. On balance, library staff including security offers waking sleeping patrons or prohibiting snacking make every effort to make referrals as possible to available services. Many patrons, including several experiencing homelessness, gather in the library atrium from 7:30-9 a.m., when the library opens. We now serve coffee on Wednesday and provide a table with interactive posters inviting people to tell us about their library experiences. A different poster is used each week. Posters have questions such as “What’s one thing our staff has helped you do recently?” or “What’s one thing you get at the library that you don’t get elsewhere?”

Targeting specific community partners for collaborating to focus service and outcome goals. Partnering with City/County Office to End Homelessness and local shelters and other streetworkers to identify needed services and best approaches to delivering. Experts in the field have shaped all aspects of the library’s program. Receiving grant funding from BCBS Foundation to support staffing and supplies; staff coordinate office hours, connect with service agency staff, provide direct public service and lead staff learning projects/sessions. Re-thinking how the library can support meaningful daytime activities for patrons who want or need to spend several hours in the library each day. Building in realistic but relevant evaluation measures in all aspects of project design. Developing a project to support a cohort of ten young adults ages 19-15 who are clients at the local teen opportunity center for homeless youth brings them weekly into the Teen Tech Lab at Minneapolis Central along with dedicated staff and volunteers to mentor on artistic and technology projects including music making, film making, graphic design and art production. The Teen Tech Lab is generally open to 13-18 year olds. An otherwise closed time has been set aside for these older participants. Staying flexible and responsive to patrons in designing each component including “office hours”, “atrium conversations” and “post-teen tech engagement”. Holding focus groups with people experiencing homelessness and aligning with community resource provider approaches to ending homelessness have been keys to offering relevant and meaningful services. Knowing that the library can’t be all things to all patrons, but improving staff confidence in referrals so that the library can be welcoming and relevant to all.

RESULTS: People with precarious housing situations will seek and visit the library as a welcoming place. They will understand and access relevant available services. Library staff including security are in more communication with service providers across the city so that referrals and problems are collectively and more immediately addressed. Library staff have an increased understanding of patron circumstances and the role for the library and library staff. Young adults who “age out” of access to the Teen Tech Lab are able to continue pursuing artistic endeavors and gain experience so they can ultimately serve as mentors to teens in the center during regular open hours. All patrons will feel welcome and positively connect with staff each time they visit. LESSONS LEARNED: We acknowledge that library staff ideas about what may be most useful or relevant to people experiencing homelessness may not be obvious and that we can benefit from the involvement and expertise of professional homeless advocates and service providers. As in any social service driven by passionate political philosophies and limited resources, services to people in precarious housing situations have political aspects to service delivery and resource allocation which are not always evident to those outside the profession.

Funding provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation.