JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1510 West

At the end of last month, officials with the West Island’s only homeless shelter found themselves without a roof over their head, a situation that forced them to do the opposite of what they are supposed to do – instead of welcoming people, they were forced to send about 50 individuals out into the streets with tents and sleeping bags.

The moment put the Ricochet Centre into what executive director Tania Charron called “emergency mode.” That means trying to keep in regular contact with its users through its shuttle service, which offers emergency food service and survival kits, while continuing its search for a new temporary home. Last year, the centre served 171 individuals.

Over half of Ricochet’s users are over the age of 55. But no two individuals that turn to the shelter for help are alike, Charron said. Their experiences and situations that have brought them to Ricochet’s doors are all different.

“There’s as many stories as there are humans,” she said.

Amid trying to keep track of the people they have been forced to turn out to the street, Charron said her ongoing efforts to find a new temporary home are not getting any easier.

Ricochet has a permanent home, but it will only be ready in January 2025. But that is six months away, and Charron said a temporary home needs to be found soon.

Among the hurdles the shelter continues to face are bureaucratic delays and vocal opposition from local residents.

“I’m hopeful,” said Charron in an interview with The 1510 West. But she is cautious. “With all the disappointments I’ve had in the last few months, I’m hopeful, (but) I don’t allow myself to feel too confident.”

Charron has visited three spaces in the past week, but doesn’t want to get ahead of herself. Her search for a temporary space has been ongoing since 2021.

She had successfully delayed moving out of the centre’s old location in Pierrefonds-Roxboro for a few years. But that luck ran out last month, when the operators of the building, the regional health authority, needed to reclaim the space.

Charron described an adequate new location for the shelter would have at least 10,000 square feet of space equipped with bathrooms, showers, a laundry room, a kitchen and be able to accommodate at  least 48 beds.

Ricochet officials have been working with the City of Montreal to find a temporary space over the past few years. But progress has been arduous, Charron lamented.

While she believes there is goodwill among officials, the process is slowed by a lack of communication and bureaucratic structures.

“At the end of the day, it remains difficult to navigate between the different structures,” she said, “and it’s pretty tiring to hear every structure blame the other for the failure of the system.”

Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough councillor Benoît Langevin, who has been outspoken in his criticism of Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante’s administration on this file, agrees with Charron that the process needs to be expediated.

“It is the city’s responsibility to provide the location (for centres) like Ricochet,” Langevin said.

He added that Montreal must put money toward renovating vacant buildings owned by the city to house Ricochet and other non-profit organizations.

Opposition from residents

Another significant hurdle for the Ricochet Centre to overcome is finding a space in a neighbourhood while avoiding push back from local residents.

Charron explained that the social stigma around homelessness has created a phenomenon of “not-in-my-backyardism.” She said that there have been numerous instances in which Ricochet users and staff have been harassed by local residents, who voice their objections to a shelter being located in their neighbourhoods.

“Everyone wants to help, but not in their backyard,” she said. “That’s a big challenge.”

Charron added that she herself has experienced such harassment. One such instance occured in 2023 amid efforts to establish an affordable rental housing project in Ste. Anne de Bellevue – a project that was eventually scrapped due to push back from locals.

“(I was) being told: ‘Did you understand? We don’t want you there. We don’t want your people here in our neighbourhood.’”

It takes a strong will to do this work, said Charron. But she added that she’s confident in herself and her staff: “You have to be determined. Our team is really perseverant and determined.”