Vancouver seeks coordinator for decriminalize poverty report

The Metropolis of Vancouver plans to rent a coordinator to supply a report for council by this summer season that features actions the town can take to “decriminalize poverty” and cut back police interactions with marginalized residents.

An outline of the coordinator’s duties is printed in a doc the town posted in December on its bid web page and is in response to a movement accredited by council in July 2020 that referred to as for policing to be “de-prioritized” as a response to psychological well being, intercourse work, homelessness and substance use calls.

In response to the movement, council’s objective is to redirect funds from the Vancouver Police Division’s price range to have community-led teams, non-profit societies, well being businesses and social service suppliers reply to such calls.

Council has put aside a price range of $300,000 for the general initiative, however the metropolis has not disclosed how a lot the coordinator will probably be paid, though the contract is predicted to final six months.

“We’re in the course of a [request for proposal] course of for the place so can not touch upon the precise quantity allotted till that course of is full,” mentioned the town’s communications division Friday in an emailed assertion. “We anticipate having recognized a coordinator round February.”

‘Criminalized by police actions’

Whoever that individual is should have established working relationships with communities within the Downtown Eastside and throughout the town, and have important expertise working with folks with lived expertise of poverty who’ve had interactions with the justice system.

The candidate should additionally “exhibit information and understanding of the methods wherein poverty is criminalized by police actions, metropolis bylaws and different means,” in accordance the doc on the town’s bid web page.

The work is predicted to be difficult, as a metropolis employees memo to council in November identified in detailing employees’s makes an attempt to achieve consensus with 13 organizations on one of the best ways to collect suggestions from marginalized folks.

The Vancouver Space Community of Drug Customers, Battered Girls’s Assist Providers, the BC Civil Liberties Affiliation, the Hogan’s Alley Society and Western Aboriginal Hurt Discount Society had been among the many 13 organizations represented within the talks.

“In late June of 2021, employees obtained important suggestions from the 13 organizations named within the movement concerning the course of and a number of other of the named organizations suggested the [Downtown Eastside] group to not interact within the course of,” mentioned the memo authored by Sandra Singh, the town’s basic supervisor of group companies.

“Employees suggested council that the method was stalled and employees would focus on additional with the group organizations they had been directed to hunt enter from and replace on a revised course of.”

Subsequent discussions led to the town and teams agreeing {that a} coordinator was wanted to maneuver ahead on the challenge. Group teams will probably be concerned in offering enter into choice standards and the hiring of the coordinator.

‘Peer-assisted disaster crew’

In the meantime, Singh famous in her memo that one concept that was raised constantly within the conferences was the necessity for some sort of trial program to divert psychological well being and different calls that don’t require police response to different “community-service suppliers.”

Singh mentioned the Metropolis of Victoria is working with the B.C. division of the Canadian Psychological Well being Affiliation on creating such a short lived program, with provincial authorities funds to be spent on a “peer-assisted disaster crew.”

“Employees will work on exploring what such a pilot would entail and can report again upfront of the broader movement report again,” she mentioned.

“One other matter recognized usually by group teams has been how the town interacts with folks experiencing homelessness or insufficient housing whereas enterprise cleansing of sidewalks and different public areas, and so employees can even discover these considerations and focus on potential modifications or options.”

The VPD, in the meantime, launched a report in November 2020 referred to as “Our group in want,” which referenced council’s movement to decriminalize poverty. The VPD mentioned it acknowledged that social points, together with psychological well being, homelessness, substance use and intercourse work, intersect with public security.

“The VPD takes efforts to make sure inappropriate, ineffective, and pointless criminalization doesn’t happen, however quite focuses on community-based, hurt discount methods in collaboration with group service suppliers,” mentioned the report, which highlighted the work of its psychological well being methods, intercourse trade liaison officer and homeless outreach coordinator.

Police Chief Adam Palmer instructed Glacier Media in June 2020 that if the group needs to see the VPD doing issues in another way, then he needs to be on the desk.

“I wish to be a part of these discussions, nevertheless it needs to be an knowledgeable dialogue and it needs to be proof primarily based and a considerate dialogue,” Palmer mentioned. “It will possibly’t simply be a response to let’s abruptly simply reduce the police and see what occurs.”

Added Palmer: “The issues that we hear constantly with of us speaking about this [defund the police] motion are issues just like the police not responding to psychological well being calls, the police not responding to home violence, the police not responding to calls like that. I’ll remind the group that the individuals who have been calling for police to not go to psychological well being requires years and to place a greater system in place is the police.”

mhowell@glaciermedia.ca

@Howellings