The City of New Westminster In 2024, the City launched the Crises Response Pilot Project (Pilot) as an effort to find compassionate, innovative, and goal-driven ways to help address the impacts to New Westminster of the three interrelated crises of homelessness, mental health and substance use. The Pilot focuses on the impacts of the three crises on those with living experience, on residents and businesses, and on City staff whose roles include contact with those with living experience and more information may be found here.
Through the 2023 point-in-time homelessness count, the City identified that not only is there a higher proportion of those with living experience who identify as Indigenous, but also that, of those, there is also a higher proportion of folks not accessing shelter services in New Westminster. This may speak to broader issues within the shelter and housing system that render them unsafe for Indigenous people; including the legacy of colonialism; a lack of culturally appropriate programs and supports; a general distrust of government and government-associated services due to colonial harms; and the fact that shelter settings can sometimes replicate traumatic institution-like settings.
This RFP is intended to bring one or more consultants into the Pilot to advise on Indigenous dimensions of homelessness, with a focus on work by the Pilot’s Crises Response Team (focusing on non-clinical outreach to those with living experience), and the Pilot’s Policy and Procedures subcommittee (focusing on internal City policies and procedures specifically related to staff positions where interactions with those with living experience will or may occur).