It isn’t open to the community just yet, but Tania Charron and her team say the Ricochet shelter will be ready by Monday.
The shelter will now operate out of a building located on Gouin Boulevard Ouest, near Highway 13, after being closed for over a month.
“It’s a relief for me, for the team, for the beneficiaries — some of them are contacting us every day to know when we’re going to reopen,” said Charron, Ricochet’s executive director.
In May, Ricochet was forced to close its doors temporarily after its lease expired and it was unable to find a new space.
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The shelter’s team had distributed survival kits to about 50 vulnerable people as they left the shelter, not knowing where they would go.
Now, the shelter, the only one on the West Island, will reopen in its new location temporarily, and the team is eager to welcome back its clients.
“We have the 48 beds that we use to have, we’re going to be open 24-7 for everybody,” Charron said. “More showers, a kitchen area, a cafeteria — this place is much more suited to our needs.”
The fact that 48 people will have a new home is good news, says Benoit Langevin, Pierrefonds-Roxboro city councillor and the official opposition critic on homelessness.
But he blames the Plante administration for not finding a space for the shelter sooner..
“It’s a clear demonstration that the Plante administration is absolutely incapable of planning,” Langevin said. “It’s been more than 40 days that there was no services offered between the older location to this one.”
On top of that, Langevin points out that the new home is temporary.
Ricochet is leasing the space for one year, but the building is also up for sale. This means that if it is sold, the shelter will have 90 days to pack up and find a new space again.
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