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

As the consumption and treatment services (CTS) site winds down in Guelph, Ont., the service set to replace it will not be fully operational in time.

Instead, the Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub will only offer a portion of its services, while the new and more expensive services like crisis and withdrawal recovery beds and supportive housing units will be placed on hold.

Melissa Kwiatkowski is CEO of Guelph Community Health Centre (GCHC), the organization that will run the HART Hub. 

She said the delay is because the provincial government still hasn't sent a funding agreement.

"I know how much we asked for, but we don't know how much we're getting," she said in an Interview with CBC News.

"We can't spend money we don't have."

While Guelph's HART Hub will still provide wrap-around health and support services starting April 1, Kwiatkowski said, "the delay in getting confirmation of funding definitely impacts our timing on when we can have services up and running."

In an email to CBC News, Ontario's Ministry of Health said it continues to work with HART Hub partners to collect information for their multi-year budgets.

"The first round of funding has been approved by the Ministry and will be received by the sites early next week," the email said.

The Ontario government is investing $529 million to create a total of 27 hubs across the province.

By March 31, it's expected there will be nine HART hubs, one each in Guelph, Hamilton, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Kitchener and four in Toronto.

Transition away from supervised consumption

HART Hubs are replacements for any CTS site in Ontario that are within 200 metres of a school or daycare, as mandated by the province last year.

The main difference between the two services is while CTS provides a space for clients to bring and use outside drugs while under supervision by health and support professionals, HART Hubs prohibit the use of drugs. 

Instead, HART Hubs provide beds for people in crisis or experiencing withdrawal as well as supportive housing units.

Kwiatkowski said these new services are a welcome addition and essential to the recovery process, but "HART Hub services are not a replacement for supervised consumption."

"We need to be adding more services to the care continuum, not taking them away," she said, adding that "for many people, supervised consumption services are a very, very low barrier entry point into the broader system of more health supports."

Through the CTS location, Kwiatkowski's GCHC has operated over the past five years, and she said more than 1,000 people have been connected to primary care.

"Those people wouldn't have gotten access to primary care if they hadn't come through CTS," she said. 

"That door is going to be closing for people."

To account for the transition from CTS to the HART Hub model at the downtown Guelph GCHC, supervised consumption hours are being slowly reduced for the remainder of the month.

Kwiatkowski said she's telling clients about the change in service, but if they show up on April 1, they can expect to see the same staff present, even if all the same services aren't being offered.

HART Hub in Kitchener

In an email to CBC News, Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo, operator of Kitchener's future HART Hub location, CEO Tara Groves-Taylor said they're in communication with the Ministry of Health and expect to receive their funding agreement shortly.

"The HART Hub of Waterloo Region will open April 1, 2025, with scaled services available, and will transition to the full model of Hart Hub programs and services over several months," said Groves-Taylor.