A new hub offering services for those in need of housing and addiction recovery support is opening in Bells Corners this week. The Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hub, also known as a HART Hub, will serve those in rural and suburban settings in Ottawa’s west end. The West Ottawa HART Hub will open Wednesday, April 8 at 2194 Robertson Rd. The centre offer access to substance abuse care, withdrawal management, housing services and social services, among others. “You can be a working mom who is concerned about their teenage son and their drug use coming in to access information. You can also be somebody who’s currently unhoused, struggling with a serious mental illness and addiction and needing treatment today,” said Tamara Chipperfield, CEO of the Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre, which will operate the centre. This is the 28th HART Hub to open in Ontario. It will receive $5 million each year for the next three years from the provincial government. The province is opening HART Hubs as it moves away from supervised consumption sites. HART Hubs will not offer a safe drug supply or harm reduction supplies. Chipperfield says one reason behind choosing the west Ottawa location, located in a strip mall in Bells Corners, was due to the difficulty in finding a location for rent for the three-year period. The Bells Corners location is also very driver-centric when it comes to accessibility, but those involved with the new HART Hub say it was placed strategically for those surrounding Ottawa to access easily as well. “We will see rural folks driving in,” said College Ward Coun. Laine Johnson. “We will see resources being shared with communities in Kemptville and Almonte.” “Rural homelessness or even suburban does look a little bit different, yes,” explains Anthony Eposti, CEO of CAPSA. “There are people still sleeping rough. Because it’s a little safer road in these areas, it’s not a congregate environment. It’s a lot of housing precarity in the suburbs and in rural locations, which means that people are couch surfing. They may be sleeping indoors but they’re actually unhoused.” Some business owners who share the strip mall with the HART Hub are concerned, with fears a new wave of clientele could disrupt the current customer base. “All the tenants in this mall were equally freaked out,” said Tony Vacchio, owner of Zola’s Restaurant. “I initially had bad thoughts because I was ignorant about it. Visions of lineups with needle injections. But there’s no drugs whatsoever on sight, from what I understand.” Vacchio says before opening, the HART Hub offered tours to businesses at the strip mall to introduce themselves to the area. “I went to have a tour last week, and I was really impressed,” said Vacchio. “I’m trying to be optimistic. But I was really glad to see what they’re all about. I think it’s a good thing.”
