A new transitional housing program is set to open at the end of next month in Kitchener, providing twelve beds to help people as they move beyond addiction and into recovery. 

Individuals overcoming addiction will receive temporary housing over six to 12 months as part of the abstinence-based program.

The program, operated by House of Friendship, is in partnership with Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo, which runs the HART Hub. It’s part of a $529 million provincial investment for addiction treatment and is located at 47 Madison Ave. S. in Kitchener.

Tara Groves-Taylor, CEO of Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo, says transitional housing is one of the key components of the HART Hub, which launched last year in April.

“We’ve had a bit of a long wait for that, for the transitional housing piece to come online. But those 12 beds represent a crucial abstinence-based option for people in our community.”

Jennifer Scott, CEO of House of Friendship, says the program is important for those committing to abstinence or entering withdrawal management. She shared an example of a man who entered withdrawal management, but had nowhere to go after his treatment was finished.

“His family relationships are broken down, so he had to return to a shelter and within about five days, because he was not in a supportive environment and there was drug use around, he relapsed,” said Scott. 

She says transitional housing fills a gap in the system to help people continue their recovery journey, but it doesn’t provide support for everyone.

Scott says there’s a “huge need,” with over 600 people experiencing chronic homelessness in the community. 

“However, what we wanted to do was fill that gap that we were seeing, which was the abstinence-based program and support those folks really well to move on into housing,” said Scott.

Permanent housing is the end goal of the program, but it’s also a main barrier to leaving transitional housing, according to Scott.

“We’re working very intently on how do we support people well to find that housing, and then when they find housing, to make sure that they can remain housed.” 

She says there’s a big focus on life-skill development and connections to the community in the program. 

Housing initiative in Guelph

Earlier this month, HART Hub Guelph Wellington announced a supportive housing model initiative, helping 150 people. 

In partnership with the County of Wellington and Stonehenge Therapeutic Community, 10 people will be able to access community housing units in Guelph and 140 existing tenants in community housing units will receive support to remain housed.

Melissa Kwiatkowski, CEO of Guelph Community Health Centre, says this initiative pairs existing housing with wrap-around clinical and housing supports.

“We know that housing stability for people is really closely linked to health and well-being. So when people don’t have access to mental-health and substance-use health supports, tenancies can fall into crisis,” said Kwiatkowski. 

She says the program reduces reliance on emergency departments, shelters and other types of crisis services.

“By providing support early as part of this component of the model, we are preventing evictions, preventing homelessness,” said Kwiatkowski.

The county has identified people in need of the support, and the program is already bringing people on board.

Role of Waterloo region’s HART hub

Local HART Hubs don’t just provide housing support. The acronym stand for homelessness, addiction, recovery and treatment. 

“It offers a range of services that meet people where they’re at in their stage of change with substance use,” said Groves.

She explained the services include food programs, showers, drop-in programs, addiction counselling and a pathway into either community-based addiction treatment or transitional beds.

Since the opening of Kitchener-Waterloo’s HART hub, Groves says they’ve served almost 600 unique clients with over 1,000 service interactions with people who are interested in Hart Hub services.

She says the HART hub supports aren’t brief. 

“For people who even choose to address their substance use, it still takes an average of, you know, about seven times for people to successfully address an issue with substance use,” said Groves.

Nine Hart Hubs across Ontario opened on April 1, 2025, replacing supervised drug consumption sites.