Why the Salvation Army Centre of Hope will be the location of HART Hub for homeless Londoners

A week after receiving provincial funding, London’s Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub has secured a location to offer stabilization beds and support services to the unhoused.

The treatment-based facility will utilize existing space within the Salvation Army Centre of Hope at 281 Wellington St. on the border of Downtown London and SOHO.

“Sometimes facilities exist but operating dollars don’t,” explained Dean Astolfi, vice president of Supportive Housing and Program Development at CMHA Thames Valley. “With these operating dollars we can do what we intend to do. We’ll have clinical wraparound supports. We’ll have hub beds right on site.”

Services provided within the HART Hub by CMHA and its partner agencies will include:

-Addiction recovery & treatment

-Mental health care

-Crisis support

-Basic needs

-Primary healthcare

-Income & employment supports

The HART hub is expected to provide a place where people can stabilize in one of its 60 spaces before moving into suitable housing.

Ensuring people flow through the HART Hub will increase its impact on London’s homelessness crisis.

“It’s transitional [space] based on their recovery journey, so each person might [be on] a little bit different timeline,” added Astolfi.

The project will also include the creation of 60 new supportive housing units in the city.

“It’s a pipeline of supportive housing that is longer-term, that people can go to after the hub,” Astolfi told CTV News. “So really you have 60 hub spaces plus 60 supportive housing spaces in the first year, and that number keeps on increasing because we have projects already underway through CMHA and other partners like Indwell.”

London was among the list of locations selected for the province’s new HART hubs, part of a $529-million investment that will create 27 locations across the province to aid in alleviating the pressure on Ontario’s mental health and addictions services.

“I’m very positive that with the partners we have on board and the support of the city, we will do good with it,” Astolfi said.

The HART Hub remains on track to open April 1, with the additional supportive housing units opening within the first year.

Sarnia and Oxford County are among the other locations in our region receiving hubs.