Nearly 80 per cent of those experiencing homelessness report substance use and two-thirds live with mental health challenges.

Cathy Dobson/The Independent

Two big pieces of the puzzle expected to solve Sarnia-Lambton’s addiction problem should open within weeks.

The first of the so-called “missing links” to help addicts seeking recovery and a better life will launch Monday, Nov. 3 at 210 Lochiel Street in central Sarnia, says Tim Heath, project manager with Canadian Mental Health Association Lambton-Kent.

The current CMHA offices at 210 Lochiel St. will accommodate a new one-stop resource centre for addiction and homelessness.

The news comes at a time when emergency resources are stretched thin and opioid-related deaths in Lambton County are nearly double the provincial average. 

Heath was one of a wide range of local healthcare professionals at press conference Wednesday to update the community on when the new Housing and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub will open locally.

The HART Hub is being financed with $5 million from the province for each of the next three years and has three components.

The first to open is the Lochiel Street resource centre, which will offer health services, meet basic needs and access to income supports, housing case management, intensive mental health support, employment services, court outreach and Indigenous care. Showers, laundry and a kitchen will also be on site.

Secondly, by the end of November, a new 30-bed addiction recovery facility will open at the former SCITS property on Wellington Street, said Bluewater Health CEO Paula Reaume-Zimmer.

Once it opens, Sarnia-Lambton residents who are committed to beating addictions will have a supportive and safe place to live for up to 18 months once they’ve detoxed.

The recovery beds are “an incredible runway” for people to plan next steps while they recover, said Reaume-Zimmer. The beds will provide a life without substances, “a life that has safety and more predictability.”

Reaume-Zimmer said the team is committed even though HART Hub is considered a pilot or “demonstration” project.

“We are very committed to show its success quickly and ensure that it remains in Sarnia-Lambton for years to come,” she said. 

Finally, the third element of the HART Hub strategy is supportive housing, which the county expects to provide in partnership with Indwell, a Christian-based group with expertise in supportive housing that has announced construction plans on George Street. 

“We look forward to sharing more information about this work in the weeks ahead,” said Melissa Fitzpatrick, Lambton County’s manager of social services.

The three HART Hub initiatives are possible because of provincial financing that has been offered to 28 Ontario communities struggling to address serious addiction and homelessness.

Despite newer services such as mobile nursing care, expanded outreach teams, and CHIC (Community Health Integrated Care team), numerous barriers still exist to helping people on the street with difficult addictions, said Cheryl DeGroot, a nurse practitioner with the North Lambton Community Health Centre who has worked with the homeless population for many years.

“A lot of my patients are living in encampments; they are living in unstable housing; they are couch surfing with no real place to live,” she said.  There remain a lot of barriers such as no transportation to get into town and long wait times for services.

Current services are “a little bit fragmented,” said DeGroot. “We have a system that doesn’t seem to be working very well for them even when they are ready to do something about their situation.”

But DeGroot said the new HART Hub initiatives will centralize services and are critical to finding a solution.

It should bring a “healthier, more equitable community for everyone,” she said, adding that she believes word will spread quickly and the new resource centre will “catch on fast.”

The Sarnia-Lambton community is waiting for the HART Hub resources and facilities to open at a time when homeless numbers have never been higher, according to Nadine Neve, executive lead at the Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team.

Throughout Lambton County, approximately 300 people don’t have stable housing. The latest available figures from 2023 show that 35 lives were lost to overdoses that year.

“These are people, these are our neighbours, these are our community members, and they are struggling,” Neve said. 

In Lambton County, addiction is the leading cause of housing loss. Nearly 80 per cent of those experiencing homelessness report substance use and two-thirds live with mental health challenges.

The demand for withdrawal management in Sarnia-Lambton cannot be met until there are more beds, Neve said, adding that Lambton County’s health indicators are among some of the poorest in Ontario.

“We see higher rates of crime, disease, premature mortality and substance-related harms.”

It’s anticipated the three HART Hub initiatives will create a total of 28 new jobs including 12 at the recovery bed facility on Wellington Street; seven at the Lochiel Street resource centre and nine at the Indwell supportive housing complex.

The HART Hub is intended to be a “safety net” for the community’s most vulnerable and will stop them “from falling through the cracks,”  said Gerry Glover, incoming CEO at CMHA Lambton-Kent.

He said the new initiatives have brought together all the local organizations that are working to stop addiction and homelessness.

“There’s still so much work to be done but we are committed to a collaborative effort,” Glover said. “And we’re up for the task.”