Since March 2024, Boulder Public Library has offered a community resource connector to help homeless people and others in need. Josh Westerman, who holds the position, also works to unite organizations in Boulder to support the unhoused and open the library’s Canyon Theater for community use.
“Sometimes folks just need a path to walk,” Westerman told Boulder Reporting Lab.
Westerman, who worked at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless and earned a Ph.D. in critical media practices from CU Boulder, hosts walk-in hours at the library’s cafe every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. He connects patrons to homelessness, mental health, substance abuse and LGBTQ+ support services. A core aspect of his work is lowering technological and logistical barriers to accessing essential services like food stamps, IDs, birth certificates and setting up mail at the courthouse.
“One of the most significant barriers to the homeless community is identification and mail because they can’t move on from homelessness unless they have these pieces,” Westerman said.
His tagline for the Community Resource Connector program is, “Come here to find your next steps.”
The position, the first of its kind in Boulder’s library system, was made possible by the transition to a property tax-funded library district, which provides more stable funding. Library Director David Farnan told Boulder Reporting Lab the program’s budget is approximately $60,000, with Westerman the sole staff member. Westerman hopes to eventually add a social worker and develop a digital literacy program.
The program acknowledges a reality in Boulder: Over the years, the downtown library has become the city’s de facto day shelter, providing a place for homeless people to stay cool or warm. Until recently, the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless in North Boulder, the city’s largest shelter, was closed during the day except during critical weather events. It opened as a day services center last month, offering basic amenities and services to help people get into housing, including showers, laundry, transportation to downtown, peer support, community court and Medicaid and pension benefit services.
However, the Boulder Shelter is three miles from downtown, where homeless people often congregate during the day. The Community Resource Connector program is designed to meet people where they are and address more immediate issues.
While Westerman said some of his services overlap with the Boulder Shelter’s, there is give and take. “I’m unable to do more of the privacy-sensitive tasks more suited to caseworkers at the shelter,” he said, such as anything involving social security numbers or medical records.
“But I have the time to be more educational,” Westerman added. “I’m able to help people learn to support themselves.” For example, he assists with SNAP applications, teaching people how to fill out the forms so they can do it themselves in the future.
Westerman noted that shelter caseworkers are generally overburdened. Having an additional resource at the library means supporting more people more quickly. “Every chance you give someone to sign up for something, the better,” he said. In his first month, Westerman said he applied for 15 IDs.
He compares his role to a resource navigator in social work organizations but aligned with the library’s mission. His first collaboration with the Boulder Shelter is to build a book collection there. He will visit the shelter in the coming weeks to register people for library cards and promote his work as a community resource connector.
One of his key efforts is building lines of communication between Boulder’s various nonprofits that support people experiencing homelessness, he said. “The relationships I form between the courts, nonprofits and other agencies allow the library to gather some of these groups together to improve the efficiency of services.”
Westerman recalled when a woman fleeing domestic violence sought help at the library. He contacted the BTHERE program, a street outreach team operated by the shelter that connects homeless people to services. The BTHERE team transported her to a local domestic violence shelter in less than an hour. “This is the sort of collaboration we’re looking for,” Westerman said.
With the North Boulder Library open, he plans to split his time between the two locations.
Westerman noted that people experiencing homelessness often have a strong distrust of institutions, which was exacerbated by the library’s closure due to methamphetamine contamination in December 2022. In response to the contamination, additional security measures were put in place, including the presence of guards and prohibiting bags in bathrooms. Most of these measures have been lifted.
“They tried to micromanage everything. Going to the bathroom never felt so intrusive,” said Christine at a recent event hosted by Feet Forward, a nonprofit that provides services to homeless people, adding, “It wasn’t any of us who did it.”
Boulder Reporting Lab spoke with several young people living at a shelter run by TGTHR, a nonprofit working with homeless youth, about the library’s services. While some said they frequent the library, they had not heard of the community resource connector. Their experience with library staff varies.
“They’re friendly, but I feel like I’ve met different types of people,” said GW, who often goes to the library to read, write and use its computers. “One minute they’re friendly, the next you ask them a question and they don’t really want to talk to you.”
Some said older unhoused patrons are treated worse. “I do feel like the homeless get judged there. A lot of them get ignored or the staff has opinions towards them,” GW added.
“I think it’s really important that there are places with less judgment,” said another youth. “A library should be accessible for everyone. It’s a public service.”
Canyon Theater piloting a public use program
The library’s Canyon Theater team is piloting a program where the theater is open for free public use, according to Westerman. Offerings being discussed include screenings of movies and recorded concerts. Westerman hopes this program can provide a reprieve from the heat or cold for homeless people.
“Many will stay downtown even after the day shelter opens, and starting a series like this is a great way to signal to the public that everyone is truly welcome here,” he said.
Westerman also hopes the theater’s entertainment will draw college students, seniors and others across generations. “This is a great chance to get folks in the same room who might otherwise not share space and let those interpersonal relationships develop naturally,” he said.
Libby Ogletree of Feet Forward expects some backlash from other library patrons over the program but said concerns about disruptions are unfounded. “People know how to act.”
Ogletree said Feet Forward sometimes sets up in the library cafe on days Westerman is not available, but she is reluctant to expand their presence since they usually see the same five or six people.
Ultimately, Westerman believes the library can play a unique role in connecting people to help when they’re ready.
“Part of that is building trust with a community that typically has been burned by every institution in town,” Westerman said. “I’m here to remind folks that you have a friend at the library.”
My experience as a (former) homeless camper since coming to Boulder in 2008 has been 100% positive with Boulder Public Library staff and most other patrons. That hasn’t been the case with a few others who are homeless and prone to bad behavior of various kinds.
I’ll be interested to see how this works out, but I’m not hopeful; the worst behavior seems to always come out, sooner or later — hence the necessity for full-time security officers on premises. (It’s NOT because ordinary citizens automatically hate on the homeless.)
As a resident of Boulder, it has been really sad to watch the decline over the years downtown.
The main library used to be a wonderful place to take my kids but it no longer feels safe to do so. It takes a large amount of taxpayer resources to build, maintain, and staff such a nice facility as the main library. None if this is free. Now it feels that has been taken away from the average Boulder family, culminating in meth contaminated bathrooms right next to the kids section of the library and security guards. What kind of a city tolerates that?
All I can do is vote for candidates and policies I feel will improve things and plan an exit once my kids finish school here.
Curtis, I echo your sentiment. I grew up going to the library as a kid and would definitely not bring kids there now. The problem has been gradually building for over a decade — I recall that already by 2010 it started to feel unsafe for kids in the parking lot and next to the creek. The Alfafa/Whole Foods closure doesn’t help.
I think it probably comes down to a simple choice: whether or not one believes libraries should be the infrastructure used to provide ‘substance abuse’ services (including, up until recently, as a location for the actual substance abuse). People clearly need those services in Boulder, but I would argue that the library isn’t the right place for it.