The Bridge is an integrated care hub that provides health and social services to people in Belleville and surrounding areas who are unhoused and dealing with substance use and/or mental health challenges. 

It offers essential services including a drop-in center, food assistance, access to primary health care, addiction and mental health counselling, and connections to other supports. 

The Bridge is currently located at 125 South Church Street in Belleville, ON.  

It will continue to operate at this location until the permanent facility at 1 Alhambra Square is ready. This facility is under renovation to accommodate The Bridge and its services.  

The Bridge relocated in April 2025 from Bridge Street United Church to its current, temporary location at 125 South Church Street. It will continue to operate in this location until the permanent facility at 1 Alhambra Square is ready.

Homelessness is complex and touches all aspects of a person’s life. An effective community response to homelessness must address housing, health, and income—the primary supports individuals need to find and maintain stable housing. The Bridge will be a one-stop source for such supports, as well as additional health and social services, including mental health and addiction services where required based on an individual’s needs. 

Multiple health and social service agencies will offer services to guests in one location at The Bridge. By working together to provide care, they can meet the immediate needs of individuals experiencing homelessness more effectively. Team-based, multi-disciplinary care is a proven best practice for addressing complex health and social needs such as homelessness. 

The Bridge meets the immediate needs of individuals experiencing homelessness, providing safety, stability and a place to connect with a network of services and supports. The Bridge connects people to resources in our community, based on individual needs. These can include mental health and addiction resources, income support, employment programs, and resources to find and maintain stable housing. 

A full interior renovation of 1 Alhambra Square is needed to accommodate The Bridge. That renovation began in August 2024 and is still in progress. Due to unforeseen structural issues, the construction work was paused in the fall of 2024, however approval and funding to complete the work has been received and it has resumed. The lower level of the new facility is expected to be ready for occupancy in late 2025.  

Funding for renovation of 1 Alhambra Square has been provided by the City of Belleville, Health Canada, and the John M. & Bernice Parrott Foundation. The Bridge has sufficient funding to move forward with the renovations. 

In May 2023, the City of Belleville provided $2.4 million to John Howard Society, on behalf of the consortium of agencies collaborating on The Bridge, to purchase and develop the property at 1 Alhambra Square for exclusive use as an integrated care hub to serve people experiencing homelessness. In May 2024, the city committed an additional $2M in funding to complete the needed renovations.  

Yes, The Bridge is a HART Hub-funded initiative. This means that The Bridge receives operating funding from the Ministry of Health to enable the service it delivers. The Bridge also receives operating funding from Hastings County.   

Other HART Hub-funded initiatives are outreach services operating throughout Hastings County, and transitional housing that will support individuals to sustain recovery from addictions and maintain housing after experiencing homelessness.  

In August 2024, the Ontario government announced the creation of new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs to support communities in promoting community safety and responding to the challenges of homelessness, addiction and mental health. Read more about the provincial HART Hubs here.

Hastings Prince Edward’s HART Hub application was jointly developed with the support of 11 organizations in Hastings and Prince Edward and in consultation with numerous others, including individuals with lived experience and those who collectively work on the frontlines of the toxic drug crisis in our region was prepared and submitted to the province to establish a HART hub in Hastings Prince Edward. In January 2025, the Hastings Prince Edward HART Hub was approved for funding. 

The Bridge is one of three HART Hub-funded initiatives in the Hastings Prince Edward region.  Other initiatives are Outreach teams of paramedics and addiction and mental health workers who can respond throughout the HPE region, and 22 units of supportive, transitional housing that will help individuals to sustain recovery from addiction. 

The Bridge hub is a partnership between seven local not-for-profit health and social service organizations with longstanding ties to the community and a shared commitment to improving the lives of Belleville residents: 

• Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre
• Canadian Mental Health Association Hastings Prince Edward
• Enrichment Centre for Mental Health
• Grace Inn Shelter
• John Howard Society of Belleville & District
• South East Health Unit (formerly Hastings Prince Edward Public Health) 
• United Way Hastings Prince Edward

The Bridge will provide a range of services – showers, washrooms, laundry, food, drop-in, rest area, community development programs, primary health care and addictions medicine, income support, housing counselling, case management, and harm reduction. Basic services will be provided 24 hours/day when it is operating at 1 Alhambra Square.

Services at the Bridge are intended to meet the immediate needs of clients and provide bridging—through meaningful peer and staff engagement using trauma-informed and harm reduction approaches—to more robust services in the region’s wider health and social service systems. Through this approach, it will meet current and evolving needs and help guests obtain and maintain stable housing.  

The Bridge is not designed as a shelter. However, there will be quiet areas where individuals who visit The Bridge can rest safely and with dignity and The Bridge will be a 24-hour facility when it is operating at 1 Alhambra Square. Therefore, it will provide a safe space for people to go if the shelter in Belleville is full.