Facility aims to provide housing and recovery support
Article by Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay, Peterborough Examiner
Peterborough’s Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub is officially operational nearly two years after the province of Ontario announced the system.
Peterborough’s HART Hub was unveiled in January of 2025 alongside more than $18 million in funding over three years. It is one of 29 throughout the province and represents a total investment of $560 million.
Kingston’s hub is set to open in the coming months.
Project is focused on long-term housing stability
Led by Four Counties Addiction Services Team (Fourcast) as the funded agency, Peterborough’s model consists of partnerships with local agencies such as the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Elizabeth Fry Society, One City, Peterborough City-County Paramedics (PCCP), Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) and the Community Health Centre (CHC).
“Our unique model puts a laser focus on long-term housing stability for those with housing options,” said Donna Rogers, executive director of Fourcast, during a launch event on Friday held at the Miskin Law Community Complex.
“We believe that housing is the solution for our communities facing the intersecting crisis of addictions, mental health and homelessness.”
The Peterborough hub consists of four components, Rogers explained. It begins with the 50 units of transitional housing at the Wolfe Street modular bridge housing community.
Additionally, six units of abstinence-based transitional housing and six more for housing for individuals exiting Wolfe Street, with dual diagnosis and acquired brain injury.
Creation of non-profit housing options integral
The significance of having non-profit partners in the CMHA and One City to make housing units available for the population the HART Hubs will serve is pivotal as well, Rogers said.
Kerri Kightley, CMHA director of programs and service, told reporters her organization operates a large supportive housing department. It is working as part of the HART Hub model to purchase housing for those accessing its services.
“We’re really interested in looking for solutions across the housing continuum and how we can use our assets as equity to purchase additional housing and that’s what we’re interested in contributing,” Kightley said of the total 10 housing units the CMHA is contributing to the HART Hub system.
“We’re always looking for more opportunities to expand that and we work fairly closely with Forecasts around supportive housing,” Kightley added.
“We’re really looking for ways that our funding can help boost this funding and or where we have some expertise or they have some expertise that can enhance one another’s programs.”
In her remarks Friday, Rogers highlighted the impact of current and economic conditions, which are “growing homelessness at a rate that is unprecedented. People cannot afford food and shelter, so record numbers are becoming unhoused.
“This is coupled with a housing crisis where the rental market is limited, expensive and competitive. The people we see in our communities and on our streets cannot compete for scarce housing.”
Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Vijay Thanigasalam was also present for Friday’s announcement.
“We have to continue to build more infrastructure, bring companies to set up shop here in Ontario and continue to provide and create new jobs,” Thanigasalam said in response to media questions around how the government is working to prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place.
“That’s exactly what we are focusing on. We need the economy to provide mental health addiction and recovery funds and the $560 million is part of the expansion of that model.”
Model represents shift from previous approach to addictions and homelessness
The announcement of the HART Hub model was made simultaneously with the Ford government’s decision to shutter nine consumption and treatment service (CTS) sites within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres.
Earlier this year, the government announced funding for all remaining CTS sites in the province would end, including the one which operated in Peterborough since 2022, which closed its doors at the end of May.
Rogers noted the CTS operated as part of “a completely different response model” to the HART Hub system. In the wake of its closure “one would assume that the need is still there, but the (drug) use is happening in other locations.”
However the role the CTS played in helping direct people to services within the city will now be dependent upon One City, which Rogers called “the epicentre of triaging and system navigation and support.”