‘I promise you, the funding is coming’: Flack on HART Hub’s delayed opening

London is being assured that provincial funding to open a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub is on its way.

Exactly when, remains unknown.

After missing the April 1 target to open London’s HART Hub, a revised opening “in May” was also missed.

Last month, Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services said it was unable to hire staff and provide an opening date until provincial funding was confirmed.

The proposed $6.3 million HART Hub is expected to operate 60 treatment spaces inside the Salvation Army Centre of Hope and an additional 60 supportive housing units elsewhere in the city.

“I am in regular communication with the Minister of Health and with the Premier as (recently) as yesterday,” says Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London when asked by CTV News about the delay. “We’re committed. It’s coming. A little longer than we wanted it to be, but we’re committed 100 per cent to funding the HART Hub.”

In total, the province is spending $550 million over four years on 28 new HART Hubs.

“We’re taking our time to make sure we get it right,” Flack responded when asked what caused the delay. “I promise you, the funding is coming.”

Health Minister Sylvia Jones has previously credited London’s homelessness strategy for inspiring the HART Hub model of care, but other communities are already providing the provincially-funded addiction treatment and healthcare.

Nine HART Hubs opened on April 1 in six cities where supervised drug consumption sites were closed by the province (Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph and Thunder Bay).