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I was enormously pleased to learn last month that Ricochet (Hébergement/Homes) officially acquired its building at 9451 Gouin Blvd. West, allowing it to keep its current 80 residents off the streets while expanding services to more people in need. It is the West Island’s first and only resource providing emergency shelter and housing support services for people experiencing homelessness.

Ricochet started as a warming centre in December 2020, during the first winter of the COVID-19 pandemic. By fall 2022, it had evolved from a warming centre to a transition shelter and finally into the first overnight emergency shelter for adults experiencing homelessness in the West Island.

More than just a warm place to sleep, Ricochet’s original space on Château Pierrefonds Ave. offered social reintegration and housing support, as well as programs for substance use and social mediation.

In April 2024, after four lease extensions, Ricochet was told by the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal that it would have to vacate the premises by the end of May because the space was required for four housing units for youth relocating from Nunavik, a project that never came to pass.

While a more permanent location had been found and was expected to be ready in January 2025, the proposed temporary space was deemed too contaminated for residential use, forcing the shelter to close. This left 50 vulnerable people with no services except survival kits containing a backpack, sleeping pad, and bus tickets.

In what she described as “a miracle,” Ricochet executive director Tania Charron secured a one-year lease with the Ignatian Spirituality Centre of Montreal, and the shelter reopened at its current location six weeks later.

Originally designed to be a Jesuit monastery, the new location sits on a beautiful wooded lot by the water and has a properly sized kitchen, cafeteria, and showers and is currently housing 80 clients. At its peak in November 2025, capacity was increased to 102 beds, while still turning away 350 people in need of shelter.

Purchasing the property is a game-changer. Ricochet is currently undergoing renovations that will add 60 semi-permanent living units to the second floor, creating a more sustainable housing option for people in precarious situations.

In a July 18, 2026 press release, Charron expressed relief that Ricochet finally has a permanent home in the West Island. “Becoming owners isn’t just about acquiring a building; it’s about ensuring our permanent presence where the needs are most urgent. [...] This building finally gives us the stability we need to deliver our services and offer a real path to social reintegration.”

While Ricochet initially faced pushback from local residents, Tania Charron and her team, with support from Pierrefonds-Roxboro councillor Benoit Langevin, Montreal’s Executive Committee’s director of Social Development and Cohabitation, and Mayor Jim Beis, have shown how tolerance and understanding can make a real difference in people’s lives.

Homelessness and housing precariousness in the West Island are real — people are couchsurfing, living in cars, and camping in tents. It’s not a faceless big-city problem anymore; it’s here, affecting our families, friends, and neighbours. Ricochet may finally have a permanent home, but until everyone who needs one has a safe place to call home, the work is far from over.

I want to congratulate Tania on all she and her team have accomplished and hope that their great work serves as an inspiration to others.