By Kai Blanchard-Ambrose, Franklin High School’s The Franklin Post
Portland has a wide variety of libraries, ranging from big to small and historic to modern. Quite notably, since 2011, the city has even had a library on two wheels. The facilitator of this unique, bike-powered setup is Street Books, a nonprofit organization that uses a mobile library to provide resources, books and community around Portland, particularly serving the unhoused community.
Street Books provides free access to books for people living outdoors without requiring library cards or incurring fines. Street Books staff—composed of nine street librarians—can be seen riding their library-bikes around Portland, accompanied or met by volunteers, often chatting among themselves and with their patrons. Laura Moulton, founder of Street Books, details the most important thing about the organization as “prioritizing knowing people.” Staff get to know their patrons by name, checking in on them and hearing how their week has been.
The organization was founded in 2011 by Moulton, who says that Street Books was meant to be a “three-month-long project that turned out to be something way longer.” Moulton says Street Books has “been able to adapt as a little ecosystem over time to support people wherever they are.” She continues, “Many people with Street Books started early on and never left.” Moulton describes the organization as a family, bonded over their work at Street Books.
“We are here to help bring books and a shared sense of community and recognition and commodity to our patrons, most of [whom] live on streets,” says Jon Hallman, who has worked as a Street Books librarian for six years. “We do that through literature and a love of books, and focusing on harm reduction and helping the needs of our patrons.” Across Street Books’ 15 years of operation, its staff has remained vital in creating community connections. Hallman enjoys meeting new people every shift and seeing the Street Books regulars who have accumulated over the years. Hallman states he wanted to work with Street Books because he likes “meeting a need that not everyone thinks of first, [and] making sure people are intellectually stimulated,” adding how the organization also aims to “give [patrons] that recognition and relationships that everybody craves.”
Squier Squier is a street librarian and library partner coordinator for Street Books, and has been associated with Street Books for a year. Squier enjoys “listening to people’s stories, telling my own stories and I love to be able to make recommendations of books that people can get lost in.” Squier describes a normal day as “giving people survival supplies, harm reduction supplies [and] finding stories to check out to people.” Squier explains how Street Books shows up for its patrons no matter the weather: “Sometimes it’s sunny, but we work in all types of weather.” Her path to Street Books followed in the footsteps of friends who joined before her. Throughout the time she’s spent with Street Books, Squier has built many relationships with other librarians, volunteers and patrons, and says she loves the community Street Books works with.
Diana Rempe, another street librarian, joined Street Books in 2012. “I carry a lot of history with the organization,” she says. Rempe praises Street Books’ evolution over the years and claims, “We’ve built relationships over time, and the relationships have gotten stronger and stronger as we’ve brought on an amazing team that went from a summer project to year-round [organization].” The organization continues to adapt, expand and find ways to help around the Portland community.
As Street Books has evolved over the years, they have kept track of their growth. In 2025, they loaned over 10,000 books—nearly 2,000 more than the previous year. They also loaned 1,052 coloring and puzzle books, hundreds of reading glasses and flashlights. Some patrons brought their own writings or artworks to share through the mobile library. The organization also distributes hygiene items and harm reduction supplies, including 4,762 doses of naloxone—a lifesaving medication that reverses opioid overdoses.
They continue to add locations to their route, expanding to meet the needs of the Portland community and librarians. Last year, they added three new street librarians and a communications and development coordinator to increase the team’s capacity. Street Books staff also got raises, now paid at least $29 an hour, and training, on subjects including de-escalation and know-your-rights, was offered to staff, volunteers and the Board.
Street Books often holds events all around Portland, with regular updates posted on their Instagram account, @street.books. The mobile library operates on weekdays on a set schedule, with specific hours varying by location. Street Books aims to meet people where they are, especially Portland’s unhoused community, in order to provide the support they need—all while being on-the-go. They continue to build relationships and adjust where they travel in order to meet the community’s needs. Street Books believes the access to education, ideas and liberty offered by books can be transformative. “We listen to people, we listen to their stories,” says Squier. In addition to their Instagram account, Street Books can be found online at streetbooks.org.
People gathered around the Street Books cart. Local nonprofit Street Books promotes community, centered on books and people’s stories. Photo by Martha Daghlian.
