A zoning bylaw amendment to permit the Housing and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub at the former Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School (SCITS) building on Wellington Street has been unanimously approved.
The transitional housing facility, with up to 30 beds, will be operated by Bluewater Health.
The hospital's President and CEO Paula Reaume-Zimmer told Sarnia council the recovery beds are part of a broader system, and individuals would need to participate in other programs like the acute withdrawal management program first.
"That really ensures that individuals are stable," said Reaume-Zimmer. "Physiologically stable, their medical condition is stable from withdrawing from substance, and then from that... many of the individuals then choose to go on to Ryan's House, when we begin to plant the seed of recovery."
Reaume-Zimmer noted Ryan's House has 12 beds, where individuals can stay up to 30 days and is located on Exmouth Street.
"[The location has] been pleasantly uneventful, I have to say," she said. "The individuals going there... they really are looking at reuniting with their natural support systems, having some life skills where they're ordering groceries, they're cooking meals together [and] learning how to eat affordably. [All with] the support and treatment programing operating every single day."
Reaume-Zimmer said the HART Hub will present the opportunity to have a full continuum of care.
"Individuals can stay up to 18 months," she said. "That's a very long runway in sustaining the recovery plan."
Reaume-Zimmer confirmed the facility will be staffed 24/7 and will be substance free.
She said staff are being trained and they hope to open in mid-November.
City/County Councillor Chrissy McRoberts welcomes the facility.
"I see this as the missing part, this is the link in the chain," McRoberts said. "In my mind [if] they want to get clean... they go to the hospital, they go to Ryan's House, they progress to your facility and then Indwell would accept them. That is the long term view of this."
The rezoning is restricted to the existing building on the north portion of the property.
The Ministry of Health will monitor the site for three years before making a decision about the facility's future.
