This northwestern Ontario town was denied a HART Hub, so it's creating its own model instead

Sarah Law · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 27, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Fort Frances isn't getting 1 of Ontario's caller Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs, but section leaders aren't giving up, alternatively promoting a strategy of wraparound enactment for the community's astir vulnerable.

The HART Hubs, archetypal announced successful the summer, are intended to supply superior care, employment support, and intelligence health, addiction and societal services.

They're replacing a fig of supervised depletion sites crossed Ontario that are being forced to adjacent astatine the extremity of March owed to caller rules saying they cannot beryllium wrong 200 metres of schools oregon child-care centres. The legality of the sites' upcoming closures is presently being challenged successful court.

Thunder Bay has the lone remaining supervised depletion tract successful northwestern Ontario. Path 525 is expected to beryllium replaced by a HART Hub adjacent month.

Further west, Kenora volition besides beryllium opening a HART Hub this spring. However, the District of Rainy River Services Board (DRRSB) says its exertion successful Fort Frances was rejected. 

"Should different circular of HART Hub backing go disposable for america to apply, absolutely, we'll beryllium applying," said Sandra Weir, integrated services manager with the DRRSB.

"But we inactive privation to support the conception of being capable to person the wraparound services."

One of the ways the DRRSB aims to bash this is done the HOPE (Housing, Opportunity, Progress, Empowerment) Transitional House successful Fort Frances, which opened successful mid-February. The location — a renovated religion — consists of six beds where radical tin enactment for up to a twelvemonth and person on-site enactment arsenic they look to displacement into semipermanent housing.

"It's a captious measurement betwixt stableness and self-sufficiency," Weir said of transitional housing. "It provides not lone a extortion for individuals that are needing immoderate support, but it besides gives them entree to resources wrong the community."

The religion besides hosts the town's Safe Bed program, tally by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), for radical experiencing a intelligence wellness oregon addictions crisis. In the winter, it houses the Out of the Cold Warming Centre.

HART Hub would beryllium 'money good spent'

The HART Hub exemplary has received disapproval for shifting distant from a harm simplification attack to addiction, and alternatively encouraging an abstinence-based model.

Unlike supervised depletion sites, HART Hubs won't let supervised cause consumption, safer supply or needle speech programs.

WATCH | Health curate says sites adjacent schools tin unopen down oregon modulation into HART Hub 

For Weir, what appeals to her astir the HART Hubs is however they let a slate of supports nether 1 roof.

Ninety-four radical connected the DRRSB's by-name database are known to beryllium experiencing homelessness successful the Rainy River district, she said.

While astir 19,400 radical unrecorded crossed the district, Fort Frances is the area's work hub, with a colonisation of astir 7,400 people.

Due to its size and the fig of radical from surrounding communities and the First Nations it serves, the borderline municipality faces galore challenges erstwhile it comes to helping those successful need, Weir said.

Andrew Hallikas, the town's politician and vice-chair of the DRRSB, said helium was disappointed erstwhile the HART Hub exertion was rejected, but "that's not gonna deter us."

He said he's hopeful the state will reconsider the assemblage successful the adjacent circular of applications.

"It truly helps if you tin ore your services successful 1 location and it truly helps erstwhile you person a fig of organizations moving unneurotic truthful we're not duplicating services," Hallikas said. "We truly deliberation that a HART Hub successful Fort Frances would beryllium wealth good spent."

The DRRSB has renovated the 3rd level of the HOPE Transitional House, and portion it doesn't person backing to grow further astatine this point, Weir said it hopes to yet bring much centralized services there.

"We cognize that with wraparound services, radical volition get the enactment that they request successful assorted ways due to the fact that a batch of times, it's not conscionable astir 1 thing.

"It could beryllium a health-care problem, a intelligence wellness problem, an addiction problem — it could beryllium thing traumatic that had happened, that they request enactment from antithetic agencies to beryllium capable to determination guardant and beryllium palmy wrong our community," she said.