Provincial funding for the homelessness and addiction recovery treatment (HART) hub had been delayed but the project is back on stream.
An announcement made in London at end of January confirmed that the Forest City would be one of the communities hosting a provincially funded hub.
At the time Deputy Premier and Health Minister Sylvia Jones told those gathered, “Each of these new homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs, or HART hubs, will have a goal of being operational by April 1st of 2025.”
But before they could dot the ‘I’s’ and cross the ‘T’s’ they had to deal the big ‘E’; a provincial election.
Dean Astolfi is vice-president of Supportive Housing and Program Development for CMHA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, “Our folks [provincial representatives], in that sort of writ period, weren’t allowed to communicate with us until cabinet got back together. And now that they are, we’re moving ahead as planned.”
Astolfi admitted that there were concerns that a new government, or new economic circumstances, would change the approach to the HART hubs.
A conversation Friday morning with provincial government officials confirmed that the hub can go ahead as planned, “We meet with our funders next week. We go through that process and, as long as everything’s okay with the details within our budget, we start phasing in our heart hub to begin in May. So, a one-month delay in total.”
The 60 HART hub beds will be located at the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope.
There are plans for another 60 beds dedicated to supportive, transitional housing that will be located throughout the city.
Astolfi says the key is to get those initial beds available for May, “33 of those are on one floor, which is where people would come into initially. And then, the remainder outside of that, the 27 beds, are within what’s called the recovery center.”
It’s estimated that 30 staff members will be hired and, despite previous labour market challenges, Astolfi doesn’t think finding staff will be an issue, “There are a lot of people that want to work with us and our partners, and there are a lot of people excited about the Hart Hub. So, you know, we anticipate that we’re going to get some, really eager folks that want to do this work.”
While the HART hub won’t be an immediate fix to the homelessness and addictions challenges the city is facing, Astolfi believes the hub along with other initiatives will move the city in the right direction.
“New supportive housing builds, more affordable housing coming online,” he said excitedly. “There’s lots of programs that, you know, we don’t even list as partners, but our partners with us as a community, we do really well to work together.”
Officials say an open house to show how features of the HART hub and how it will operate will take place shortly before the official opening.
