Ottawa Expands Its Safety Net with a Second HART Hub
Ottawa has taken another step in addressing its homelessness and addiction crisis with the opening of a second Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub — this time in the west-end community of Bells Corners.
The new facility joins Ottawa's first HART hub as part of a provincewide Ontario initiative designed to provide a single, accessible location where people experiencing homelessness or addiction can access shelter, health care, mental health supports, and pathways to longer-term housing and treatment.
What Is a HART Hub?
HART hubs — short for Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment hubs — were introduced by the Ontario government as an alternative model to supervised consumption sites. Rather than focusing narrowly on harm reduction, HART hubs are designed as wraparound service centres that connect people with a broader range of supports under one roof.
Those supports typically include short-term shelter beds, primary health care, addiction treatment referrals, mental health services, and help navigating social services like housing applications and income supports. The goal is to meet people where they are and provide a bridge toward stability.
Why Bells Corners?
Bells Corners, located in Ottawa's west end, has seen its share of challenges related to housing precarity and addiction — issues that aren't limited to Ottawa's downtown core. Locating a HART hub in a suburban community reflects a recognition that homelessness and addiction affect every corner of the city, not just the ByWard Market or Centretown.
Community organizations and city councillors in the area have long advocated for more locally accessible supports, arguing that residents in crisis often face barriers getting to downtown services, whether due to transportation, safety concerns, or simply the distance involved.
Part of a Broader Strategy
The Bells Corners opening is part of Ottawa's broader effort to build out a network of community-based supports as the city grapples with an ongoing housing affordability crisis and the lingering effects of the opioid epidemic. Ottawa Public Health and local social service providers have flagged both as interconnected challenges requiring sustained, coordinated responses.
City councillors and provincial representatives have pointed to HART hubs as a critical piece of that response — one that can divert people from emergency rooms and jails while providing a more humane, health-centred pathway to recovery.
What's Next
With two HART hubs now operational in Ottawa, advocates and service providers will be watching closely to see how the Bells Corners location performs — how many people it serves, what outcomes it achieves, and whether demand points to the need for additional sites across the city.
For Ottawans who live or work near Bells Corners, the new hub represents a tangible expansion of the community safety net. For those navigating addiction or housing instability in the west end, it may mean getting help closer to home.
Source: CBC Ottawa via Google News
