With funding set to run out, referrals from Winnipeg library social services hub have surged, report says

Referrals from a social services information hub in Winnipeg's flagship downtown library branch surged in the first three months of this year, according to a new report.

The Community Connections space in the lobby of the Millennium Library has library staff and community crisis workers who help people find a variety of services, including housing, addictions support and health care. 

From October to December last year, there were 2,566 referrals. That number more than doubled to 5,886 from January to March of this year, according to the report.

Part of the increase can be attributed to the fact that the space, along with the rest of the library, was temporarily closed after the fatal stabbing of Tyree Cayer at the branch in December 2022. It didn't reopen until Oct. 30, 2023, and did not resume full operating hours until Nov. 19.

Despite the closure, the increased use of the hub "is significant, indicating that it is providing much-needed access to resources," Irmy Nikkel, administrative co-ordinator of support services for the Winnipeg Public Library, wrote in the report, which goes to city council's community services committee next week.

More people have been coming to the space as word of the reopening has spread in the community, Nikkel wrote.

"The space has also seen a large influx of customers who are recent newcomers to Winnipeg, who are using the Community Connections resources to access information on housing, income supports, and employment information including resume assistance," the report says.

Funding for the Community Connections space is set to run out at the end of this year. The City of Winnipeg's draft budget has no money for the Community Connections space past Dec. 31.

Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), who chairs the community services committee, has said he does not think that the lobby of the Millennium Library is the appropriate place for the Community Connections space, where staff often work with people suffering from addictions or mental health challenges.

He's also said he does not think it's the role of the city to deal with matters relating to health, housing and social services, which are the responsibility of the provincial government.

"From Day 1, I have said that the services that are provided by Community Connections are needed — [but] they are needed to be managed by the province of Manitoba," Duncan said in an interview on Thursday.

"I'm empathetic with the situation that's going on in downtown Winnipeg and throughout our city," he said. "We need wraparound services, and we need the government to step up on a provincial level and fund those."

'Huge mistake'

One library advocate told CBC News the increase in referrals shows the Community Connections space has been successful at providing low-barrier access to information as part of an overall strategy to improve safety in the library.

"Closing the Community Connection space would be a huge mistake," said Joe Curnow, a member of the advocacy group Millennium for All. 

"The library is home to a lot of different users with different needs," she said, and if the Community Connections space closes, its users will simply move into other areas of the library, where staff are already overworked, or into the surrounding community.

"Community Connections provides library services designed by library professionals to provide library resources," said Curnow.

"So why this would be outside the scope of what the city should fund is a mystery to me."

The report also says attendance at all Winnipeg library branches has increased, with more than 966,000 visits from October to March — up nearly 134,000 visits compared to the same period in 2022.

Security incidents at Winnipeg libraries also increased year-over-year during that period, from 659 to 723. That includes a range of incidents, from assaults to inappropriate behaviour, with the latter category accounting for most of the reported incidents.

Half of the recorded incidents from the past six months were at the Millennium Library.

The increase in the number of incidents is roughly proportional to the increase in visitors, the report notes. 

The report also credits community safety hosts with de-escalating 77 per cent of incidents they were involved in. 

The community services committee is set to receive the report at its May 8 meeting.