Laundry Love New Westminster

Laundry Love New Westminster is a partnership between Laundry Love in the US and the New Westminster Homelessness Coalition Society. We are officially the first program in Canada!

Laundry Love partners with local laundromats to help low income and no income community members clean their clothes and linens. Once a month we take over a laundromat for 4 hours and provide free access to laundry soap, washers and dryers to community members. It is a win-win, community members get clean clothes and linens and a local business is supported. Our Laundry Love events are currently held at Setit Coin Laundry and Dry Cleaning at 1120 5th Ave.

Laundry Love New West UPDATE January 2024

The New Westminster Homelessness Coalition Society would like to express our gratitude to the New Westminster community for the incredible support shown to the Laundry Love New West program.

Laundry Love New West was the first program of its kind in Canada after receiving permission from Laundry Love US to use their best practices approach here in New Westminster. The NWHCS established the program as part of the COVID-19 emergency response and continued it as a pilot until December 2023. 

Laundry Love provided free laundry to many in the community, but it also raised awareness of the very basic needs our unhoused and at-risk community members face on a daily basis. While we understand it is a much-needed service, the NWHCS’s mandate is not to deliver services but to provide support to our members and partners who are on the frontline doing this. A decision was made at the January 2024 NWHCS Board meeting to not continue with the program. However, the Board is encouraging any community group or organization interested in seeing this program continue to reach out to our Coalition and Projects Coordinator, Betina Wheeler, to discuss possible partnership opportunities to keep the program in New West.