Funding delay means Guelph HART Hub won't be fully operational on time

Cameron Mahler · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 12, 2025 12:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

As the depletion and attraction services (CTS) site winds down successful Guelph, the work acceptable to regenerate it volition not beryllium afloat operational successful time.

Instead, the Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub volition lone connection a information of its services, portion the caller and much pricey services similar situation and withdrawal betterment beds and supportive lodging units volition beryllium placed connected hold.

Melissa Kwiatkowski is the CEO of Guelph Community Health Centre (GCHC), the enactment who volition tally the HART Hub. 

She said the hold is due to the fact that the provincial authorities inactive hasn't sent a backing agreement.

"I cognize however overmuch we asked for, but we don't cognize however overmuch we're getting," she said successful an Interview with CBC News.

"We can't walk wealth we don't have."

While Guelph's HART Hub volition inactive supply wrap-around wellness and enactment services starting April 1, Kwiatkowski said, "the hold successful getting confirmation of backing decidedly impacts our timing connected erstwhile we tin person services up and running."

In an email to CBC News, Ontario's Ministry of Health said they proceed to enactment with HART Hub partners to cod accusation for their multi-year budgets.

"The archetypal circular of backing has been approved by the Ministry and volition beryllium received by the sites aboriginal adjacent week," the email said.

The Ontario authorities is investing $378 cardinal to make a full of 19 hubs crossed the province.

By March 31, it's expected that there volition beryllium 9 HART hubs, located in Guelph, Hamilton, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Kitchener and 4 successful Toronto.

Transition distant from supervised consumption

HART Hubs are replacements for immoderate CTS site successful Ontario located wrong 200 metres of a schoolhouse oregon daycare, arsenic mandated by the provincial authorities past year.

The main quality betwixt the 2 services is that portion CTS provides a abstraction for clients to bring and usage extracurricular drugs portion nether supervision by wellness and enactment professionals, HART Hubs prohibit the usage of drugs. 

Instead, HART Hubs supply beds for radical successful situation oregon experiencing withdrawal arsenic good arsenic supportive lodging units.

Kwiatkowski said these caller services are a invited summation and indispensable to the betterment process, but "HART Hub services are not a replacement for supervised consumption."

"We request to beryllium adding much services to the attraction continuum, not taking them away," she said, adding that "for galore people, supervised depletion services are a very, precise debased obstruction introduction constituent into the broader strategy of much wellness supports."

Through the CTS determination Kwiatkowski's GCHC has operated implicit the past 5 years, and she said much than 1,000 radical person been connected to superior care.

"Those radical wouldn't person gotten entree to superior attraction if they hadn't travel done CTS," she said. 

"That doorway is going to beryllium closing for people."

To relationship for the modulation from CTS to the HART Hub exemplary astatine the downtown Guelph GCHC, supervised depletion hours are being dilatory reduced for the remainder of the month.

Kwiatkowski said she's telling clients astir the alteration successful service, but if they amusement up connected April 1 they tin expect to spot the aforesaid unit present, adjacent if each the aforesaid services aren't being offered.

HART Hub successful Kitchener

In an email to CBC News, Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo, operators of Kitchener's aboriginal HART Hub location, CEO Tara Groves-Taylor said they're successful connection with the Ministry of Health and expect to person their backing statement shortly.

"The HART Hub of Waterloo Region volition unfastened April 1, 2025, with scaled services available, and volition modulation to the afloat exemplary of Hart Hub programs and services implicit respective months," said Groves-Taylor.