Hiring is underway as part of the planning and preparation phase to establish a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hub in Windsor.
President and CEO of Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare Bill Marra says the hiring includes registered nurses, registered practical nurses, social workers, and addiction support workers who can help those facing mental health or an addiction crisis.
"Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is working particularly closely with Brentwood, the House of Sophrosyne, and the {Windsor-Essex} Community Health Centre, as well as Nancy Brockenshire and her team," he says. "The bedded components are going to include a location at House of Sophrosyne, in Brentwood and also at Prince Road, our hospital location."
In January 2025, the province approved an application to establish a HART Hub in Windsor, a model the government endorsed over supervised consumption and treatment service sites.
The idea behind the hubs is to address homelessness and addiction by providing centralized access to services such as mental health care, addiction treatment, housing assistance, and employment support to provide people a place to stay during their recovery effort.
The province has committed $529 million to establish 27 HART Hubs across Ontario.
Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) will co-lead Windsor's hub, alongside the House of Sophrosyne and the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre, with support from the Windsor-Essex Ontario Health Team.
Marra says there was a bit of a misunderstanding around the expectation of an April 1 opening date; that was more aligned with safe injection sites that could be immediately converted into HART Hubs.
"We will likely be operational sometime this summer. I have to tell you the planning is going well. Ontario Health and Ontario Health West, our region, have been incredible partners. We're very much looking forward to the launch of it. We believe this will have an immediate impact on the system," he says.
HART Hubs will focus on those aged 16 and older who are experiencing homelessness and seeking help with addiction or mental health challenges.
Marra says they believe this will close some gaps in the system and hopefully become a road to recovery for a lot of people.
"We need to make sure when somebody presents, for example, at the mental health and addictions urgent care centre or an ER, that they are seen right away or assessed right away, that we have a warm handoff and an immediate handoff," he says. "It's those time lapses that really create a crisis. We have stabilization beds, treatment beds, and counsellors who are going to be on board."
In 2024, the province introduced new rules for supervised drug consumption sites, including banning all locations within 200 metres of schools or child-care centres, and introduced the HART hub program as an alternative.
Windsor's SafePoint site opened in April 2023 but needed provincial approval and funding to operate the space, which was ultimately closed on January 1, 2024.