Homelessness and addiction hub approved for Chinatown
Somerset West Community Health Centre's application for millions of dollars in funding for a homelessness and addiction treatment hub has gotten the green light from the province.
The health centre in Ottawa's Chinatown hosts one of 10 supervised drug consumption sites that will be forced to close under new provincial rules banning them within 200 metres of schools or licensed daycares.
The Ministry of Health said it would instead commit $378 million for 19 Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs — and said it would prioritize applications from nine of the facilities losing their consumption sites.
On Thursday, the ministry announced that it has approved all nine of those applications.
"The new HART Hubs will give people struggling with addiction the support and treatment services they need to achieve lasting recovery," according to Michael Tibollo, Ontario's associate minister of mental health and addictions.
The province plans to fund 10 more, but it has not yet announced which ones it will approve. Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre is leading an application to open one in west Ottawa.
The ministry said a decision on the remaining applications is expected in the coming weeks.
According to the provincial government, the HART hub at Somerset West will be a "low-barrier, trauma-informed, culturally responsive" 24/7 health-care model, integrating elements like primary care, mental health and substance use treatment, and housing with supports.
Services will include substance use management and addictions counselling. It will also provide referrals to detox beds and other mental health and addictions programs.
The hub will be open to anyone in Ottawa.
The 10 supervised consumption sites are required to close by the end of March, and the province has set a goal of April 1 to have HART hubs open.
HART hubs are not permitted to operate needle exchanges or supervised consumption, nor can they operate safer supply programs, which provide opioid drugs like hydromorphone to replace street drugs like fentanyl.
Ottawa still has three supervised consumption sites, which allow users to inject or otherwise use drugs in indoor spaces where staff can intervene to reverse overdoses.
The remaining sites are all located within a few blocks of each other in Lowertown and north Sandy Hill, operated by the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, Ottawa Inner City Health and Ottawa Public Health.
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