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Crises Response Pilot Project

About the Project

Like many municipalities in Metro Vancouver, the City of New Westminster is trying to find compassionate, innovative, and goal-driven ways to address three particular crises:

  • Homelessness
  • Mental health
  • Substance use

The goal of this pilot is to advance proactive, resilient and strategic organizational approaches that can be used long-term. The project involves three inter-departmental staff teams.

  • Crises Response Team. This team is made up of outreach workers who provide supports to those experiencing homelessness, mental health, and substance use. The members of this team can provide referrals to provincial teams, as well as to faith-based and not-for-profit partners in the community. They champions the needs of Indigenous people with living experience, and work to identify how the City could provide a culturally-appropriate and trauma-informed response. There are eight members on this team, three of whom are non-clinical outreach workers. 
  • Operations Support Team. This team responds to issues related to emergency, life safety, fire prevention, cleanliness, compliance with bylaws, and also assesses staff needs related to safety and training. Some examples of their work include proactive daily cleaning, working with a contractor to address issues related to waste, and also making sure staff have the proper tools to carry out their work in this context. 
  • Policy Development and Advocacy Team. This team is lobbying senior levels of government for additional funding, resources and supports, which are needed to sustainably address the needs and issues associated with the three crises. They regularly assess and refine the work in this pilot through working groups, as well as through external evaluation.

The pilot project's approach is informed by a variety of experiences: along with those directly impacted by the three crises of homelessness, mental health, and substance use, it acknowledges the impacts to City staff, and the community as a whole.

The project will be guided by principles of preventing further harm, prioritizing safety and well-being, and being proactive and responsive.

 

Goals AND Advocacy Actions

  • An extreme weather response shelter with up to 30 beds.
  • A permanent 24/7 shelter with 50 to 60 beds that also offers support services.
  • A health connect and resource centre with a health and wellness focus addressing the needs of the unsheltered.
  • A supportive housing development with 50 to 60 units, including 10 complex care beds to support people with significant mental health and substance use issues.
  • Expanded outreach related to homelessness, mental health and overdose prevention.
  • Extended hours for the Health Contact Centre, which incorporates an overdose prevention site. We also support the addition of a naloxone inhalation component.
  • Restoration of medical services, including medical services related to addiction, at the Health Contact Centre.
  • Provision of a 24/7 trailer that includes showers, sinks, and toilets (Note: this trailer was installed in August 2024 and can be found along Front St., near the nightly shelter).
  • Reimbursement of funding for portable toilet services and bio-hazardous clean-up and disposal.

 

Biohazard Waste Pick-up program

Qualifying Downtown businesses may be able to participate in the biohazard waste pick-up program. This program involves a third-party contractor that regularly makes its way through parts of the neighbourhood from Monday to Friday. 

If you'd like to learn more about how to sign up for the program, or how to report biohazardous waste in the community, please visit the Biohazard Removal Program page.

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