Funding delay means Guelph HART Hub won't be fully operational on time
2 hours ago
Duration 1:50
There are only about twenty days left until nine consumption and treatment services (CTS) locations are set to close across Ontario, including one in Kitchener and one in Guelph. Those facilities will be replaced by Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Treatment — or HART — Hubs. Melissa Kwiatkowski is the CEO of the Guelph Community Health Centre, which is the home of the new HART Hub in Guelph. She spoke to CBC's Aastha Shetty about winding down CTS services in the city.
As the consumption and treatment services (CTS) site winds down in Guelph, 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 pricey services like crisis and withdrawal recovery beds and supportive housing units will be placed on hold.
Melissa Kwiatkowski is the CEO of Guelph Community Health Centre (GCHC), the organization who 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 they continue 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 $378 million to create a total of 19 hubs across the province.
By March 31, it's expected that there will be nine HART hubs, located 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 located within 200 metres of a school or daycare, as mandated by the provincial government last year.
The main difference between the two services is that 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, operators 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.
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