Ontario opens homelessness and addiction hubs, replacing consumption sites near schools and daycares
Advocate says sites have not received funding, hubs are not operating on Tuesday
The Ontario government announced it opened nine Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs Tuesday, replacing the supervised drug consumption sites across the province that are located near schools and child-care centres — but an advocate says these hubs are not actually operating yet.
The hubs provide access to recovery and treatment systems for people struggling with addictions and mental health issues, but do not provide any drug consumption services, the province said in a news release Tuesday.
"We're making Ontario safer and helping people fighting addiction find lasting recovery," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a post on X on Tuesday.
These hubs were announced after the province passed legislation last year banning supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares. Nine out of 10 sites slated to close in the province agreed to become HART hubs.
But Zoë Dodd, a co-organizer with the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, said the sites have not signed funding agreements with the province and haven't received any money to provide these services.
She said there is "mass confusion" on Tuesday among people who work at these sites and who access services.
"People have no idea what is going on," she said.
A spokesperson for the Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said the hubs opened as planned on Tuesday in an email to CBC Toronto.
"All nine Hubs have received start-up funding, and the ministry will continue to work with them to finalize their budgets by mid-April," spokesperson Hannah Jensen said.
HART hubs will receive up to four times more funding than they did as supervised consumption sites, the provincial news release said. Each hub will receive $6.3 million annually.
They will provide services including primary care, mental health services, addiction care and support and employment support.
The hubs opening Tuesday are located in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph and Thunder Bay. The government is spending $550 million to create a total of 28 HART hubs across the province, the news release said.
Sites closed despite injunction granted last week
Advocates have criticized the province's shift to an abstinence-based treatment model, which they say could result in more people dying as a result of the toxic drug supply.
Last week, an Ontario judge granted an injunction to keep the 10 supervised consumption sites open while he considers a Charter challenge to the province's legislation. But Jensen said Monday that the sites would still close.
The province will withhold funding from any HART Hub that continues to provide supervised drug consumption services, she said.
Even if supervised drug consumption sites located near schools and daycares are no longer forced to close, they may eventually close anyway if they don't have the provincial funds to keep operating, said Diana Chan McNally, a Toronto community worker and expert in harm reduction.
The Charter challenge was launched by the Neighbourhood Group, which runs the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention site in Toronto. The site is the only one of the 10 sites in the province that will remain open, as it operates on donations and is not provincially funded.
More than 21,000 overdoses have been reversed at supervised consumption sites across the province since they became legal in 2019, court heard last week.
The following centres are opening HART hubs on Tuesday. Toronto Public Health will also be creating a hub downtown:
- Guelph Community Health Centre
- Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre
- Somerset West Community Health Centre (Ottawa)
- Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo
- Parkdale Queen West (Toronto)
- Regent Park (Toronto)
- South Riverdale Community Health Centre (Toronto)
Thunder Bay's site was expected to open on Tuesday but has not yet opened.
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With files from Shawn Jeffords, John Paul Gallardo and The Canadian Press