House of Friendship's addiction centre in Cambridge gets $150K from region

The Region of Waterloo will provide a $150,000 grant to a new addiction treatment centre being built in Cambridge by the House of Friendship.

The decision to approve the grant was made Tuesday afternoon during a regional administration and finance committee meeting. The decision will still need to be ratified by council at its meeting on May 8.

The House of Friendship has run a men's residential treatment program in Waterloo for more than 40 years.

That location can't be expanded to meet a growing demand, House of Friendship executive director JohnNeufeld said. He described the site as a 130-year-old crumbling farmhouse which is deteriorating and now surrounded by university housing.

Neufeld says they've had to turn people away because of physical limitations of the current location.

The new Cambridge site on Concession Road, a building previously owned by Women's Crisis Service, is currently being renovated.

Initially House of Friendship said the new centre would cost $3 million. But in the wake of the opioid crisis in Waterloo region, Neufeld says they decided to add a second floor to increase the number of people the centre could serve.

That raisedthe cost to approximately $5 million.

To raise money, the House of Friendship has sought donations and also generated capitalthrough community bonds, which they will pay back over time.

Regional staff told the committee the request for funding met the eligibility for a capital grant and would be similar to other grants provided in the past, including money to Hospice Waterloo Region and Haven House. Funding would come from the region's capital levy reserve fund.

July move-in

Neufeld said renovations of the facility started in September 2018 and are expected to be completed in June of this year with an anticipated move-in date this July.

Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry says the city is "very happy to have" the centre because the community has been "rocked" by the opioid crisis.

Neufeld thanked the region for their contribution to the project.

"By this summer, we're going to have great addiction treatment facilities," he said. "We have a long way to go but we're moving in the right direction."