16 Graham Street – The former Woodstock PUC building has been purchased by the Woodstock Hospital’s Board of Trust and will eventually house the city’s HART Hub (Contributed photo).
Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A HART Hub is coming to downtown Woodstock.
The Oxford Ontario Health Team (OHT), Woodstock Hospital, and other community partners announced this week that the Ministry of Health has officially approved a joint Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) application.
The Hub, when operational, will support those facing homelessness, mental health, and addictions in Woodstock and Oxford County. The former PUC building at 16 Graham Street has been purchased by the hospital and renovations will begin as soon as possible.
“Woodstock Hospital is proud to collaborate with our Oxford OHT partners to bring the vision of the HART Hub to life,” said Perry Lang, President and CEO at the hospital. “We look forward to working with our community partners to offer comprehensive wraparound care to support our most complex populations through their treatment and recovery journey.”
The building was purchased for $1.6 million out of hospital reserves. Lang admitted there is a fair bit of work that needs to be done at the site before it can become operational and there is no opening date set.
“The hospital has engaged an architect and work will commence immediately.”
Teresa Martins is the OHT’s Executive Director and said her organization’s mission is to work together to build a stronger, healthier community for all.
“This HART Hub funding announcement is a significant milestone in achieving that mission. By working together to offer access to the right care, by the right team, and in the right setting, we can reduce system fragmentation and help individuals right when they need it.”
Oxford County Warden Marcus Ryan said the OHT put a lot of work in before HART Hubs existed and deserves a lot of credit.
“It’s a great example of collaboration and everyone working to get in the right place at the right time. The OHT had a package the province couldn’t say no to knowing the situation here. They said yes, now the real work begins.”
Oxford County isn’t involved directly with the Hub other than being a member of the OHT but indirectly Ryan said they will play a role.
“The HART Hub will have to integrate with what we do currently in terms of homelessness, addiction and mental health. Also, what we do in terms of our homelessness response strategy homelessness service centre that will be coming in April. There are a lot of partners going to be involved, maybe not directly, but this thing isn’t going to work unless everyone collaborates.”
Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione was present for the announcement and said the Hub will be a huge benefit in helping the homelessness, mental health and drug problem facing the city.
“The Province’s HART Hubs is exactly the type of model we had in mind when we identified a new priority action in our strategic plan at the start of this term of Council. We knew that bringing together care partners in this type of collaborative approach was the only way we can make progress to address this growing issue.”
Last November, Woodstock City Council voted in favour of using the nearly $2 million the city received through the Building Faster Fund to partner with Oxford County to support the creation of a permanent, low-barrier shelter. Acchione said all the recent positive news will have a profound impact on the community.
“We are so grateful to our provincial partners for recognizing the need and taking action towards addressing the challenge communities like ours are facing when it comes to mental health, addictions and homelessness.”
Oxford County also found out this week it is receiving $700,000 from the province. The money is to help wind down encampments in public spaces by creating more emergency shelter spaces and affordable housing units.
Ryan said the county is finally starting to turn the corner on the issue of homelessness and what comes with it.
“Before we had this HART Hub, we didn’t even have the tools to do the job. We were sort of standing at the side of the road looking at the flat tire without a jack, without a wrench, without a spare. As I have said many times, if someone is suffering from a diagnosed mental health issue and self-medicating, Oxford County providing four walls and a roof is not the solution.”
The county was just awarded $700,000 in funding from the province to create more emergency shelter spaces and affordable housing units to provide vulnerable people with appropriate short-term and long-term housing alternatives to encampments. Ryan explained the county has been advocating for the funding for over a year.
“Oxford County staff identified existing funding envelopes from the province we thought we qualified for. We’ve never got that money before but we put a lot of effort into advocacy with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and I sat across from the minister last week and said we have done our homework and we are ready to go.”
$500,000 of the money will create four additional housing units to complement the 33 currently available, allowing the county to move people out of emergency shelters which in turn means some folks can move from encampments into emergency housing.
“The other $200,000 is encampment response money for 12 seasonal emergency shelter beds in Tillsonburg and the hiring of a system navigator who will help those people and others in the homeless community navigate their way to get support through the emergency shelter and the coming Oxford homelessness service centre and the coming HART Hub,” added Ryan.
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