Here's what to know about Greater Sudbury's homelessness and addiction treatment hub
The City of Greater Sudbury has released more information on how it will address addiction and homelessness by creating a new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub.
The initiative is part of a $529-million provincial commitment to establish 27 HART hubs across Ontario. It aims to build safer communities and improve access to mental health and addiction services.
Greater Sudbury's hub will be located on Lorraine Street, a site that has faced delays and challenges. It is currently set to open in April 2025. The project has a fixed cost of $14.4 million.
Speaking about the announcement, Deputy Premier and Health Minister Sylvia Jones said, "Our government is helping more people get the treatment and support they need, when and where they need it, by taking the next step to improve access to mental health and addictions services."
Sudbury's HART hub will provide wraparound services, including primary care, mental health and addiction treatment, supportive housing, and employment programs. A team from Health Sciences North will run these.
The facility will house up to 40 people at a time, who will be selected from the city's list of people experiencing homelessness.
Tyler Campbell, director of children and social services for the City of Greater Sudbury, called the funding a "game changer" for the community.
"It allows us to meet clients where they're at," he said. "It allows for 24-hour supportive housing in place for individuals with their self-contained unit. It allows them to get stabilized and ready for the transition into our community-based housing."
Campbell explained that residents of the hub will stay for up to 18 months and will have access to services such as addiction support, nursing care and mental health assistance.
"There are 40 one-bedroom units within the building and three programming areas that will offer programming for the occupants that reside here," explained Cindy Briscoe, the city's manager of housing services.
Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre praised the announcement, noting that council has been advocating for funding for several years.
"This part allows us to break that cycle to ensure that we're giving those wrap-around services to get healthier and better, as well as get the skills to be able to reintegrate into the community," Lefebvre said.
The Lorraine Street site has had a troubled history. The transitional housing project faced delays after its initial contractor, Nomodic Modular Structures Inc., declared bankruptcy in October 2023.
Construction halted for nearly two months before Flex Modular was named the new contractor in December of 2023. Adding to the challenges, the city fell victim to a $1.5-million email fraud scheme, though more than $1 million has been recovered through the courts.
According to Briscoe, the matter is still in front of the courts and the total restitution cannot be revealed.
The province selected Sudbury's HART hub location through a call for proposals last summer. Similar hubs elsewhere in Ontario have shown success in addressing complex needs.
Notably, nine supervised consumption sites in cities such as Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay that are near schools or licensed childcare centres will transition into HART hubs. The hubs will not offer supervised consumption services.
As Sudbury's HART hub nears completion, Lefebvre says it will provide crucial support for vulnerable populations, but he acknowledges the work is far from over.
"This is part of the solution, but it's not the only solution," he said. "We're certainly happy and we want to recognize the province's efforts in making this happen and that they listened. We've been advocating for this. So we're really delighted to see this move forward. But we're not done."
The HART Hub on Lorraine Street will be one of several such facilities in northeastern Ontario.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Sault Ste. Marie will be in charge of another hub. Maamwesying North Shore Community Health Services will lead an Indigenous-led HART hub with several sites along the north shore of Lake Huron. The cities of Timmins and North Bay are not on the list to receive a hub.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
4 days ago
- CTV News
Sudbury hospital annual meeting highlights success, challenges
Northern Ontario Watch Some of the highlights from the Health Sciences North annual hospital meeting are the hiring of 900 new staff and 32 physicians.
Toronto Star
11-06-2025
- Toronto Star
Ontario health units say measles vaccine registry missing ‘real-time data' on vaccination rates
Under fire for a growing measles outbreak linked to the death of a newborn last week, Health Minister Sylvia Jones is calling on people who are vaccine-resistant to get over it. But public health units in areas hit hard by the highly infectious disease said it's impossible to tell if that's happening because short-term data on measles shots is not immediately available in Ontario's public health system. 'This is a vaccine that has literally existed in the province of Ontario for five decades and when you have two shots you are almost 100 per cent protected. Think about that,' Jones said Tuesday. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'All of us are deeply concerned when we hear of individuals who, for any number of reasons, have chosen not to get vaccinated, some because of allergies, some because of religious and other reasons. It impacts us,' she added. 'This is an opportunity for all of us to understand that our actions have an impact on other people.' The infant who died was born prematurely and was infected in utero through a mother who had not been vaccinated. The newborn was also dealing with other serious health complications. There were renewed calls for Premier Doug Ford's government to step up efforts to fight measles and encourage shots, after Ontario's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kieran Moore on Thursday, revealed the fatality last Thursday. However, for now, health units can't tell if the infant's death has spurred more interest in shots, which cannot be taken during pregnancy. 'We do not have the ability to pull real-time data on vaccination uptake over a short window like this, unfortunately,' Southwestern Public Health, where the infant's death occurred, said in a statement to the Star. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The health unit is based in St. Thomas to serve Elgin and Oxford counties. 'The majority of vaccination uptake remains at the primary care level, and without a provincial vaccine registry with real-time data, there is no system currently available that can provide this information,' the statement added. Chatham-Kent Public Health said it is also in the dark. 'At present, we do not have data available to assess any shifts in public sentiment regarding the measles vaccine,' said spokesperson Jacquie Cartwright. With the province acknowledging last week there have been six cases of congenital infection in the more than 2,000 cases reported in the province since last October, New Democrat MPP Robin Lennox (Hamilton Centre) said Tuesday the province needs a vaccine registry 'that would help us know who is most vulnerable and where to direct our resources.' The rising infection level shows the government's approach of telling people to see their family doctor or reach out to their local public health unit is not working, Lennox, a family physician, told the Star's Kristin Rushowy last week. 'Obviously, something has broken down, because the advice has been the same for many, many years and this is the only time where we've seen this kind of an outbreak in literally 30 years.' Public health units have held pop-up clinics near schools and churches since the outbreak began. Many of the current cases can be traced to a Mennonite wedding in New Brunswick last fall. Measles had been considered eradicated in Ontario for two decades. Politics Headlines Newsletter Get the latest news and unmatched insights in your inbox every evening Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Yes, I'd also like to receive customized content suggestions and promotional messages from the Star. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Politics Headlines Newsletter You're signed up! You'll start getting Politics Headlines in your inbox soon. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page.
CBC
09-06-2025
- CBC
Homelessness and addiction hubs in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury face delays opening
Social Sharing Treatment (HART) hubs in northeastern Ontario are still waiting for final approvals from the province to start operating. On the eve of the provincial election, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced 19 new HART hubs would be operational by April 1. The hubs would provide access to recovery and treatment systems for people struggling with addictions and mental health issues, but would not provide any safe drug consumption services. Lisa Case is the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Algoma, which was chosen to run the HART hub in Sault Ste. Marie. She said the organization has submitted its budget with the province for the planned hub. Ontario's Ministry of Health and Ontario Health have reviewed that submission, Case said, but now she's waiting for additional feedback. "We have received updated terms and conditions related to that funding that we're reviewing with our partners and responding with some additional questions, but we're still in that holding pattern right now," Case said. She said the province has allocated CMHA Algoma a budget of $6.31 million annually over three years to run its HART hub. Case added the services are especially needed in northern Ontario. "We've been hit harder across the north in spite of the creativity that we've used as community partners and the interventions we're able to provide," she said. "We're seeing just the volumes of individuals seeking help and then often the distance to get help." The City of Greater Sudbury will run a HART Hub in collaboration with the Health Sciences North hospital. The city says it's still finalizing logistical details but should have more concrete information to share by next week. Ema Popovic, a spokesperson for Ontario's health minister, said in an email to CBC News that nine HART hubs in the province that were previously supervised drug consumption sites opened on April 1. That includes the NorWest Community Health Centre in Thunder Bay.
