Almost one full year after they announced funding for a downtown HART Hub, provincial spokespeople still aren’t saying much about it.
They’re also mum on the city’s well-established need for more transitional housing and have repeatedly refused to answer questions about supporting the city’s efforts to expand services.
The HART Hub was announced in late January 2025, and was to include $6.3 million in annual provincial funding for three years toward the 40-unit transitional housing complex on Lorraine Street, plus a downtown hub.
The downtown HART Hub is not to be confused with the homelessness hub the city has established at Energy Court, where a sanctioned encampment has been allowed to take shape around a 24/7 warming centre.
Mayor Paul Lefebvre announced a key detail about the HART Hub last month; that it will consist of 48 scattered supportive housing units with wraparound services.
Even after receiving correspondence from the province this week, it remains unclear when these 48 units will be filled, whether there will be one centralized location (or simply the scattered units as Lefebvre described), what exact services residents will receive and how many people will be employed to help them.
Broadly defined “substance use treatment, mental health services, primary care and social supports” and “wrap-around services” will be provided, but no further details were shared by the province.
Sudbury.com has been peppering provincial ministries with questions regarding the downtown HART Hub project (possibly called the HARTbeat Health and Wellness Centre) for months.
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing communications staff ignored emails sent on Dec. 8, Dec. 9, Dec. 10 and Dec. 16. On Jan. 5, they finally responded to a new inquiry to clarify that our questions about a municipal housing project should be addressed by the Ministry of Health.
As has consistently been the case with provincial ministries under the Ford Government, our interview request through Ministry of Health spokespeople was ignored.
Instead, they issued a written statement which neglected to answer most of the questions we sent them, and only partially answered one line of questions.
Unanswered questions include:
- By when will these 48 scattered units be filled?
- What is the HARTbeat Health and Wellness Centre? If there are 48 scattered units, will there be a physical centre?
- There’s also a need for more transitional housing in Greater Sudbury. Ontario Big City Mayors have declared homelessness and addictions an emergency, and yet elected officials in Greater Sudbury are left waiting for the funding required to meet this existing need. Where is the urgency on the part of the province? When might the province make a decision on this matter?
The question they partially answered was, “What services, exactly, are being offered through this HARTbeat Health and Wellness Centre? How many employees? What will they do?”
The 28 Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs across the province “will bring new mental health, social, and addiction services, as well as supportive housing units, to the communities across Ontario – including Sudbury,” they wrote.
“In addition to substance use treatment, mental health services, primary care and social supports, the new Greater Sudbury HART Hub will add 48 units through rent supplements in partnership with Monarch Recovery Services and CMHA Sudbury Manitoulin. The units are evenly divided, with 24 units allocated to each organization. Supportive housing programs combine rent supplements, to provide stable housing, with wrap-around support services to assist the individual.”
Last month, Lefebvre cited three partner organizations as being Monarch Recovery Services, Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre and the Canadian Mental Health Association. In light of the province’s latest statement, it’s unclear whether Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre is still involved.
In a written statement provided to Sudbury.com in October, a provincial spokesperson noted that the HART Hub’s “permanent location is in the midst of its procurement phase, and details about the full range of services and rollouts will be shared once this process is finalized.”
They’re now citing “48 units through rent supplements,” which Lefebvre described as scattered units, so it’s unclear what this “permanent location” is.
Meanwhile, a website called the HARTbeat Health & Wellness Centre, which appears to be for the downtown Sudbury HART Hub, has been stripped of much of the material it featured when we last reported on it in late October, but it still indicates it is “coming soon.”
With the province refusing to share details, Sudbury.com has reached out to Monarch Recovery Services, Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre and the Canadian Mental Health Association for more information about the downtown HART Hub.
Update at 10:15 a.m., Jan. 12, 2026:
After this story was initially published, Monarch Recovery Services responded to Sudbury.com's inquiry to clarify that they're currently completing working with partners to complete "pre-launch planning and preparations."
"This work includes finalizing site details, recruitment, onboarding, and operational readiness activities to ensure the Hub can deliver safe, coordinated services when it opens.
"We will share more information publicly as we move closer to the launch in the coming weeks, and remain committed to keeping the community informed as timelines and details are finalized."
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.