The City of Ottawa is expanding the Alternate Neighbourhood Crisis Response (ANCHOR) program to serve more residents experiencing mental health and substance use crises. Beginning at the end of Q2 2026, the service area will extend eastward to include ByWard Market, Lowertown, Sandy Hill, Lees Towers, Vanier, and Overbrook, with boundaries stretching from Beechwood Avenue in the north to Highway 417 in the south, St-Laurent Boulevard in the east, and the Rideau Canal in the west.
This expansion will allow the program to reach communities with higher identified needs while also testing the program’s ability to scale and gather important data to inform future growth. ANCHOR provides a 24/7 community-led response that dispatches trained crisis workers instead of police in many mental health and substance-use emergencies. In its first year, the program successfully handled the vast majority of dispatched calls without police involvement, demonstrating the value of a community-based approach to crisis response.
