FORT FRANCES — The area was left off the list of places where the province is funding its new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs, but officials in the Rainy River district hope their bid can be revisited at some point.
This week, the Ontario government announced Kenora will host one of 17 additional HART hubs, joining nine others that had already been approved, including Thunder Bay.
Mayor Andrew Hallikas said a partnership of Rainy River district organizations that applied for a facility is happy for the northern Ontario communities that were successful, but "We were disappointed, there's no denying that."
Hallikas also serves as vice-chair of the District of Rainy River Services Board (DRRSB), which led the bid for a HART hub in Fort Frances.
The board bought an old church and renovated it for use as a cold-weather shelter and short-term and longer-term accommodation for people dealing with addiction or mental health issues, in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Hallikas described it as a unique facility providing a continuum of care.
"As always, we're short on funding....We have partners lined up. We were hoping we could get a HART hub here. It just fits in with what we're already doing," he told Newswatch in an interview Wednesday.
Groups collaborating in the bid included:
Giishkaandago’Ikwe Health Services
Riverside Health Care
Fort Frances Family Health Team
Gizhewaadiziwin Health Services
Atikokan Health and Community Services
Northwestern Health Unit
Canadian Mental Health Association Fort Frances Branch
"We had hoped the province would be favourably impressed by the number of partners, community groups,not-for-profits, community members that are coming together to try to do something locally about homelessness, addictions, and the related mental health problems, because it's exactly the type of thing the province is pushing," Hallikas said.
Although he feels the challenges Fort Frances has are no worse than elsewhere in Ontario, he said there are also some unique circumstances in the district.
"We're a very large, low-density district. We're so remote we're in a different time zone. We are off the Trans-Canada Highway, we don't have passenger rail service, we don't have a regular airline flying in...Because of all that, we just don't have the resources to call upon, and that's why we need a little bit of help now and then from the province."
He said if the government puts out a call for more applications for HART hubs in the future, there will definitely be another bid from the Rainy River district.
In a news release, the DRRSB described HART hubs as "a vital step forward toward addressing systemic challenges in our community, offering comprehensive resources to empower individuals on their path to recovery and stability. Our dedication to pursuing this initiative with our Rainy River District Ontario Health Team partners remains strong."
