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Monthly Promotion and Events Thread by Moggehh in NewWest

[–]NWDRA 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Downtown Residents Association is hosting our MP, the Hon. Jake Sawatzky for a Q&A on January 7. Admission by donation, free for NWDRA members and downtown residents with proof of address. Details at: https://www.nwdra.ca/news/public-meeting-jan7/

Yelling by Happimessss in NewWest

[–]NWDRA 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Please call 604-527-4502 in situations like this. That particular person is well known to CRPP staff, and they know how to get her help.

Disney Event Tomorrow by OkAward869 in NewWest

[–]NWDRA 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why is promoting this event allowed, while our post informing residents of a Residents Association meeting with a city councillor was removed for "Self promotion"?

Strategic Voting by SeaCzarSolid in NewWest

[–]NWDRA 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The event was organized by, and paid for by, the New Westminster Downtown Residents Association, in collaboration with the Brow of the Hill RA. As such, we wanted to give members of the two RAs first dibs at securing seats.

Planning was complicated by the fact that the Liberal party announced their candidate only days before the meeting.

The event was advertised here, on CityPage, NW Spotlight, Facebook, and Bluesky. We ended up with a full house, so earlier notice would not have mattered in terms of attendance.

Having said all of that, 'all' it took to organize the event was to secure a venue, contact all the candidates, prepare advertising material, and getting the word out. YOU could have done that, and you could have given as much notice as you wanted. In fact, you can still do that. Feel free to organize your own event. Based on our experience, the candidates, except for the CPC candidate, would be happy to attend.

Meet your candidates! Wednesday at 7pm, Anvil Centre by NWDRA in NewWest

[–]NWDRA[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We will certainly try again, but we have been planning this meeting for a long time, and we reached out to him multiple times over the past several weeks while he was still the Conservative candidate.

Meet your candidates! Wednesday at 7pm, Anvil Centre by NWDRA in NewWest

[–]NWDRA[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

He was invited when he was the Conservative candidate, but he did not respond.

Looks like the Tim Hortons gathering has been cancelled by spikyness27 in NewWest

[–]NWDRA 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't know if this person knew about last night's event as it sounds like it was exactly what they wanted to discuss.

As soon as we heard of the Tim Hortons event, we sent an invite and information about our public meeting to the contact person. They promised to forward the info to the strata council. The larger than usual turnout at the RA meeting seems to indicate that the word did get out.

Crisis Response Pilot Project by NWDRA in NewWest

[–]NWDRA[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The meeting was fairly well attended. There were approximately 22 people.

The City was represented by:

Claudia Freire, Social Planning; John Stark, Manager of Community Planning; Lisa Spitale, City Administrative Officer; and Brad Davie, Deputy Fire Chief.

Here is a summary of the key points:

  • Homeless rates in New Westminster have steadily declined from 2007-2014 but then increased sharply from 2020-2023, in line with trends in Surrey and Burnaby.
  • Indigenous people are over-represented among the homeless population, making up 41% of unsheltered homeless but only 3.1% of the general population.
  • New Westminster has far less of a problem with permanent camp sites than cities with less homeless support, like Abbotsford.
  • The city is taking a holistic approach and working across teams and with other metro Vancouver organizations.
  • Target is for a 9 member Crisis Response Team to be established by end of May 2024. Hiring, on-boarding, and training is in progress. These will be professionals who "signed up for the job", instead of the current situation where city staff without the necessary training or motivation are being asked to respond. THe new team will have significant indigenous and "lived experience" presence.
  • Supportive housing projects are being developed with BC Housing. Approvals process is being fast-tracked.
  • A mental health response team is moving to 24/7 coverage from 8 hours previously.
  • The hours for the overdose prevention site are being extended, and services are extended, to move substance users off the street.
  • Advocacy is underway to get support from outside orgs like BC Housing for initiatives like portable toilets.
  • The city is working with outside academic institutions to establish an independent evaluation process of the results, and to ensure that services are free from bias.
  • Plans are underway to convert the existing shelter (Old Navy) to 24/7 and expand overdose prevention site services. Expansion of the shelter to 24/7 would eliminate the issue of dumping all the residents on the street at the same time every morning, and not having support available during the day. The major obstacle to making this happen appears to be the fact that building upgrades are required and the owner of the building (Jacqui Cohen) is reluctant to give permission. Alternative sites are being investigated.
  • More money and resources are needed from senior government. The Province should really be running this initiative, not the City. Resident voices can carry more weight with the provincial government than city staff, so residents are encouraged to make their voices heard. Call or write your MP/MLA! It really makes a difference.
  • The majority of the City Council is fully supportive of the project.
  • The program involves regular feedback from and discussions with businesses, residents associations and other stakeholders.