The Ontario government has announced it is investing $6.2 million in a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub in Peterborough, one of 27 approved across Ontario.
Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith made the announcement on Monday (January 27) at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough, at an event attended by Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal, Peterborough city councillors Alex Bierk and Keith Riel, Peterborough County warden Bonnie Clark, Peterborough Regional Health Centre president and CEO Dr. Lynn Mikula, Peterborough police chief Stuart Betts, Canadian Mental Health Association Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge CEO Ellen Watkins, Haliburton Kawartha Northumberland Peterborough Health Unit medical officer of health Dr. Thomas Piggott, and others.
“The Hart Hub is a fantastic approach,” MPP Smith said in a media release. “It means that we are crossing different sectors to ensure that we are providing the service where they need it, when they need it, and at the appropriate level. People can enter at any stage into the hub, wherever they are, and then progress through. It is the first time that any province has looked at the entire continuum for homelessness, addiction, and rehab.”
The creation of HART Hubs comes from the province’s August 2024 “safer communities” announcement that banned supervised drug consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and child care centres, which also resulted in the closure of nine existing provincially funded supervised drug consumption sites, including four in Toronto as well as sites in Guelph, Hamilton, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, and Kitchener-Waterloo.
During the August announcement, the Ontario government encouraged those nine sites to submit proposals to transition to HART Hubs, and also announced it would also be investing $379 million to create 18 new HART Hubs across Ontario and issued a province-wide call for proposals.
On January 5, the province announced the nine closed drug injection sites would be transitioned to HART Hubs by March 31 and, on January 27, announced the 18 new hubs — for a total of 27 HART Hubs. All the hubs will have the goal of being operational by April 1.
Led by Four Counties Addictions Services (Fourcast), Peterborough’s HART Hub will bring together local service delivery partners to provide a continuum of services in Peterborough for people with complex service needs on their recovery journey from addictions and homelessness.
The goals of the HART Hub are to increase system capacity for primary care, psychiatric care, and assessments for the homeless population that typically experience barriers to services, increase access to housing supports and income supports, and improve quality of life.
“Today’s announcement is a huge step forward in addressing homelessness and addiction recovery in our community,” said councillor Bierk, who co-chairs the city’s housing and homelessness portfolio with councillor Riel. “The HART Hub will provide much-needed supports and housing options for individuals with complex needs, helping them stabilize and rebuild their lives. We are grateful to MPP Smith for his advocacy and this critical investment in creating pathways to recovery and housing stability.”
The Peterborough HART Hub would deliver primary and psychiatric care, mental health and addictions services (including case management, Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM), withdrawal management, bed-based addictions treatment, and aftercare), peer recovery coaches, mental health and addictions supportive housing (both transitional and permanent) and dual diagnosis supportive housing with 24/7 community wrap-around services, occupational therapy, and vocational services.
“The HART Hub investments are the right concept for the right time,” said Fourcast executive director Donna Rogers. “Our community, like others, is struggling with high rates of homelessness, chronic mental illness, substance use and addictions and poverty.”
“For people living this crisis, housing is the solution. The Peterborough HART Hub investment will offer housing alongside many of the other essential supports that can help people re-establish their lives through housing stability, addiction and mental health recovery, and good health. Our community is ready to maximize this opportunity and build on the strong foundations of housing from homelessness that has been established amongst our community partners.”
Like all of the HART Hubs funded by the province, the Peterborough hub will not offer safer supply, supervised drug consumption, or needle exchange programs.
The other 17 new HART Hubs that have been approved by the province are listed below.
- CMHA Peel Dufferin (Brampton)
- Health Sciences North/ Horizon Santé Nord (Greater Sudbury)
- The HART of Simcoe (Barrie)
- Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (Windsor)
- CMHA Hastings and Prince Edward County (Belleville)
- Durham Community Health Centre (Oshawa)
- CMHA Thames Valley (London)
- CMHA Algoma (Sault Ste. Marie)
- Services and Housing in Province (Dufferin County)
- Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health (Lanark, Leeds and Grenville)
- Oxford Ontario Health Team (Oxford County)
- County of Renfrew (Renfrew County)
- Gateway of Niagara (Niagara)
- CMHA Lambton Kent Sarnia (Sarnia)
- Pinecrest Queensway Community Health Centre (Ottawa)
- Kenora Chiefs Advisory (Kenora)
- Maamwesying (Sault Ste. Marie)
At Monday’s HART Hub announcement, MPP Smith also announced a provincial investment to expand the mental health crisis unit at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC).
The Ontario Ministry of Health is working with PRHC to complete early planning and design for the crisis response unit. Once further planning is complete and the project has been tendered and awarded, a construction schedule will be confirmed.
Once opened, the expanded mental health crisis unit will include additional capacity to address high volumes of acute mental health and substance abuse incidents and new crisis unit beds, and will separate adult and youth mental health patients tso they can receive the appropriate and high-quality care they need in a safe space.
“This moment marks the culmination of years of planning and preparation to expand our regional mental health and addictions program,” said PRHC president and CEO Dr. Lynn Mikula.
“The addition of a purpose-built, expanded crisis response unit at PRHC will have a profound impact on the lives of thousands of patients, improving care and alleviating overcrowding in our emergency department, which sees 80,000 visits a year.”
