John Street intake centre connects range of services

CBC News · Posted: Feb 05, 2026 2:40 PM EST | Last Updated: February 5

Renfrew County is unveiling its take on Ontario’s HART Hub treatment model: a web of agencies and services tied to a starting point near the Pembroke waterfront.

The intake centre at 156 John St. is open 24/7 and can refer people looking for housing, job or mental health support, including addictions, to a number of options for help.

That includes 10 supportive treatment beds at a local motel, and 12 short-term beds at the Carefor Mackay Centre retirement home and support centre that have been available since October.

Among the groups involved are the Pembroke hospital, The Grind non-profit café and nearby Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation. The province is spending $6.3 million over three years on the project.

County and provincial officials held the hub’s official opening on Thursday, but the work to get there stretches back many months.

Renfrew County started its Mesa project in 2024 to try to find a co-ordinated solution for the causes of its mental health and substance use problems. Its HART Hub was approved last January.

WATCH | CBC follows the mesa project in its early months:

Eighty-four Renfrew County residents died of opioid toxicity from 2020 until the end of 2024, according to Public Health Ontario. There were 316 emergency room visits during that time for the same reason.

Those numbers don’t account for health emergencies from other types of drugs, nor other downsides of addiction the county is trying to address.

When it comes to housing, Renfrew County’s community housing waitlist has more than 2,000 households.

• Nearly 85,000 people homeless in Ontario, up 8% in one year: report
• More than 2,200 died of opioids in Ontario in 2024 as numbers trend downward

Ontario’s ruling Progressive Conservatives have turned to HART Hubs instead of supervised drug consumption sites, saying they’re a better way to get people treatment. Hubs do not offer supervised drug consumption or needle exchange programs.

Renfrew County’s hub is the fifth in eastern Ontario, along with Belleville, a joint Brockville-Smiths Falls location and two in Ottawa.