{"id":828934,"date":"2026-07-27T09:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/828934\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T09:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:45:10","slug":"controversial-sandy-hill-drop-in-centre-to-relocate-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/828934\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial Sandy Hill drop-in centre to relocate in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A drop-in support centre in Ottawa\u2019s Sandy Hill neighbourhood wants to extend its stay in the area after announcing it will move to a new location sometime after January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Centre 454 has operated in St. Alban’s Church on the corner of Daly Street and King Edward Avenue for several decades, as one of three support centres run by Anglican ministry group Belong Ottawa.<\/p>\n

The centre provides hot meals, laundry services and a safe place to rest and make friends for people who don’t have a permanent home.<\/p>\n

When CBC visited just after lunch last Thursday, there was a bustling energy throughout the centre.<\/p>\n

While some people hastily dropped off laundry, others gathered around a TV to watch a movie. But when Belong Ottawa executive director Shawna Young announced the centre\u2019s relocation plans, things came to a halt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a separate blog post<\/a>, Belong Ottawa wrote that as “part of long\u2011term planning,” both they and the city concluded the centre would relocate after January 2027.<\/p>\n

“Recent\u00a0closures of nearby consumption and treatment service sites\u00a0have increased pressure on Ottawa\u2019s health and social service system,” Belong Ottawa wrote. <\/p>\n

“In response, Belong Ottawa has asked the city to extend the transition timeline to safeguard continuity, participant safety, and neighbourhood well\u2011being amid evolving conditions and concerns raised by Ottawa\u2019s chief medical officer of health.”<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBC, Young called the Sandy Hill area a \u201ccorridor for support\u201d for Ottawa\u2019s vulnerable communities, but municipal and neighbourhood “pressures” sparked the relocation plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who live in the neighbourhood are subject to seeing people use drugs, and they see a lot of things in the street that are very upsetting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is an important service and those who are unhoused have a right to dignity and care.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Young, the city provides about 80 per cent of funding for Centre 454, with the rest coming from the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa and donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBC asked the city several questions about the impending move \u2014 including what conversations led to the decision and whether Centre 454 would continue to get funding \u2014 but did not get a response in time for publication.<\/p>\n

\"SandySandy Hill resident Patrick Mathisen has accessed Centre 454’s services and wants it to remain in the neighbourhood. (Justin Ball\/CBC News)Relocation plan isn’t new<\/p>\n

The relocation idea was brought to the city two years ago, when Sandy Hill residents called Centre 454 a danger to the community and asked the city to defund it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a city budget meeting in 2024, residents said that some of the centre’s clients harass them, break into their properties, use drugs in their laneways and even defecate in their gardens.<\/p>\n

But others like Patrick Mathisen say Centre 454 provides a crucial service to Sandy Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran into a little bit of trouble and basically ended up living on the street,\u201d he told CBC on the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually Centre 454 that was there to help me get set up with a welfare support network, a counselor, all that stuff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Centre 454 said it’s seen more activity since the city\u2019s last supervised consumption sites closed<\/a> in June when provincial funding dried up.<\/p>\n

While the centre hasn\u2019t seen a spike in overdoses, the medical needs of its visitors have increased. Young said more meals are being served out of the centre, adding that they’ve doubled the distribution of harm reduction supplies to protect drug users.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it’s unclear where it will move next, Centre 454 is calling for a longer relocation timeline to ease the transition for the people who rely on its services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ideal outcome is that the city grants us an extension so we can continue to operate here until we find an appropriate alternate location to continue serving the people we do,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-828934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}