Province approves new treatment hub in Hamilton, to be run by operator of closing safe injection site

The operator of the only supervised injection site in Hamilton — which the province is forcing to close — has been approved to run a new kind of homelessness and addiction treatment centre.

The program at the Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre will be one of 19 new hubs across Ontario opening around April 1, the provincial government said in a news release Thursday.

In August, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced 10 supervised consumption sites in Ontario would have to close as the province banned such sites from operating within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres. Thursday, the province announced nine of those would transition to a new provincially funded model, alongside new hubs. 

"We have heard loud and clear from families across Ontario that drug injection sites near schools and child-care centres are making our communities less safe," Jones said in the news release.

The City of Hamilton described the location as a consumption and treatment services (CTS) site, where people consume "pre-obtained drugs in a safe, hygienic environment under the supervision of trained and authorized harm reduction staff." 

The site was within 200 metres of at least one child-care centre, run by the YWCA Hamilton. In August, Medora Uppal, the YWCA executive director, told CBC Hamilton the organization had no safety concerns related directly to the CTS site, which was located downtown at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church.

When the closure was announced, Rev. Mark Lewis, the church's interim moderator, said his community believed the site helped people in need and "reduced violence significantly." 

At the time, the province told the 10 closing sites they could transition to become a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub. The government said on Thursday it invested $378 million to "support" the hubs's creation, and that the hubs will be eligible for an average of four times more funding than they received as supervised consumption sites. 

The hubs will not include safe injection services and the province has effectively prevented new CTS sites from opening. 

Despite earlier comments criticizing the move to close the CTS site, Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre said on its website Thursday the organization was celebrating the funding approval for the hub as a "transformative moment in the journey to create a healthier, more inclusive Hamilton." It called the new hub "groundbreaking" and "visionary."

Sandy Ezepue, executive director of Urban Core, announced the organization's intention to transition to a HART Hub in late August. Ezepue also said the Ontario government's move to ban supervised drug consumption sites would likely exacerbate overdose incidents and drug-related deaths in the city.

"These services are crucial in reducing the risk of overdose, preventing the spread of infectious diseases, and ultimately saving lives," Ezepue said at the time.

In November, Ontario's auditor general found more than 1,600 overdoses were reversed between 2022 and 2023 at the sites targeted in the legislation. Nobody died of an overdose at those spots during the same time frame, the report added.

CBC Hamilton reached out to Ezepue for further comment after Thursday's announcement but did not receive a response before deadline.