Kitchener will be getting a new HART Hub as a provincial replacement for the closure of the safe injection site at 150 Duke St.
In a press release, Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones said that the province has approved nine new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs to protect "the safety of children and families while improving access to recovery and treatment services."
Back in Aug. 2024, the province announced it would be shutting down any safe injection sites located within 200 meters of schools and licensed child-care centres.
The recently passed Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act and the Community Care and Recovery Act prohibit the operation of drug injection sites within 200 meters of a school or child-care centre.
Each provincially funded site was allowed to submit a proposal to transition to a HART Hub and all nine applications have now been approved, including the one in Kitchener.
“We have heard loud and clear from families across Ontario that drug injection sites near schools and child-care centres are making our communities less safe,” said Jones. “Through these nine new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hubs, part of our government’s $378 million investment to create a total of 19 hubs across the province, we are taking the next step in our plan to keep communities safe while improving access to mental health and addictions services.”
Although Sanguen provides services at the current CTS in Kitchener, the organization says it will not be heading the upcoming transition and operation of Waterloo region's only HART Hub.
The service provider on the region's application to the province was Community Healthcaring (CHC) Kitchener-Waterloo and the approved location will be at the Old Tannery building on Francis Street in Kitchener.
“We have been notified this morning by the Ontario Government that the Region of Waterloo HART Hub application that we submitted for the transition from CTS on March 31, 2025 has been one of the initial approved submissions in Ontario," wrote Tara Groves-Taylor, CEO of CHC and John Neufeld, executive director of House of Friendship in a joint statement.
To have the HART Hub operational by March 31, the organizations were granted funding for a three-year pilot to begin implementation of a transition plan with their partners at the Region of Waterloo, Sanguen and Langs Community Health Centre in the coming months.
"We are encouraged by this funding coming into our community given the needs of those that we serve. As HART hub co-leads, Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo and the House of Friendship, will be working closely with community partners across the Waterloo Region to build on our collaborative network to support vulnerable people in our community," said the pair.
The region did not respond to requests asking why the former CTS site on Duke Street is not being transitioned into a HART Hub.
The province adds that the hubs will be eligible to receive an average of up to four times more funding to support treatment and recovery under the model than they receive from the province as a consumption site. To assist with transitioning, the sites will also receive one-time funding for start-up costs.
According to the province, the funding for the new HART Hub will help the region ensure people can identify and access the care they need, increase the number of outreach teams and enhance longer service hours, expand services (particularly mental health and addictions care) and add more locations served to meet the changing needs in the community.
The closure of the CTS site and the pause on harm reduction services have been heavily criticized by social workers and drug policy experts claiming that this decision will drive those addicted to drugs further into privacy and will cost lives.
Minister Jones refuted these claims, previously saying, “People are not going to die."
Some of the services that will be provided at the site will include, mental health services, addiction care and support, shelter and transition beds, primary care and supportive housing.
The new model will see local partnerships leveraged to secure fixed-site transitional housing units and scattered-site supportive housing units for HART Hub clients.
"Social Services, ID, and employment; naloxone and satellite hubs will be located at carefully selected locations where the HART Hub’s target population already gathers, including places where support for basic needs are provided," said the province.
The region and organizations like Sanguen have previously said they would like to see a HART Hub come to Cambridge, but details about satellite locations and where they could be placed are currently unknown.
The province notes that the HART Hub will ensure pathways for equity-deserving groups to access culturally safe and relevant care from organizations that specialize in supporting a specific equity-deserving community.
For example, Indigenous people who choose an alternate way of treatment will be able to access cultural outreach services from The Healing of the Seven Generations, land-based healing from Crow Shield Lodge, and supportive and affordable housing from K-W Urban Native Wigwam Project.
The new hub on Francis Street will be open by March 31, 2025.
