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The only homeless shelter in the entire West Island of Montreal is now closed and the Ricochet shelter is looking for a temporary home until its new space opens in January.

So, what happens to the people who depend on the shelter?

Clients and staff have known this day was coming for two months and had hoped the relocation committee made up of city and provincial partners would find a site but they didn't.

The shelter is now closed and 50 more people are on the streets.

The Ricochet Centre in Pierrefonds-Roxboro is being forced to close its doors temporarily after its lease expires at the end of May. It was the only shelter on Montreal’s West Island.

“Never did I think that I would have to look at the beneficiaries in their face and tell them that they’re not going to have a place to feel safe and secure. And that was just gut-wrenching,” said Caterina Modica-Amore, program and projects coordinator at Ricochet.

After three years, and four lease extensions, they’re searching for a new space, but have come up empty.

“With the city, with the borough, as soon as I got the news, we met and did another tour to look at what’s available. We found a vacant, well, the city found a vacant building, but we learned on May 21 that it was too contaminated to be suitable to operate. So we’re May 30 right now and we’re closed,” explained Tania Charron, executive director of Ricochet.

Last fall, Charron and her team with the support of the Pierrefonds–Roxboro borough and the city of Montreal scured a building that will only become available in January 2025 after major renovations.

At the end of April, the team identified another building, only to find out it was too severely contaminated for use.

"We're now May 29 and we have nowhere to go," said Charron.

In a statement, Robert Beaudry, the executive committee member responsible for homelessness, said the city is meeting with Quebec's social services minister today to try and find a solution to Ricochet's lack of space.

West Island's Ricochet emergency shelter forced to close

Its 50 residents are out on the streets with emergency kits but nowhere to go.

he Ricochet homeless centre that operated in the West Island for 3½ years, providing emergency shelter and transitional housing for 50 clients, closed its doors Friday.

Roughly 50 residents, half in the long-term transitional housing unit and the other half in the emergency overnight shelter, were forced to leave the premises. Ricochet gave emergency kits to residents with nowhere to go that included sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tents and backpacks.

Sachant que tout est à recommencer pour la clientèle qui se retrouve devant rien, les intervenants leur ont préparé des trousses de survie. Ils ont distribué cette semaine une cinquantaine de sacs à dos, de matelas de sol, de sacs de couchage, des couvertures, de la nourriture non périssable, une tente et 12 billets d’autobus.

«C’est un échec de devoir regarder une cinquantaine de personnes dans les yeux, de leur donner une tente et de leur dire: excuse-moi, il n’y a pas d’autre solution», a déclaré au TVA Nouvelles la directrice générale du refuge, Tania Charron.

«Concrètement, le Ricochet, c’était deux programmes: d’abord, 24 lits d’urgence, puis un programme de réinsertion sociale avec 24 places 24/7 pour aider les personnes. Nous, ce qu’on veut, c’est donner l’opportunité de rebondir aux gens», explique Tania Charron.

They found a temporary space to set up while their new building was being renovated, but that plan came crumbling down in recent weeks upon the discovery that the new structure was too contaminated to move in.

By the end of May, the shelter had to close its doors, with nowhere to go as it scrambled to find a new space.

Tania Charron, executive director of Rocochet, said her team, the borough and the City of Montreal had been working to find a new temporary place before the end of the lease for months. They finally thought they had a safe plan when the city offered up one of its vacant buildings until the news of its contamination.

Shepherds of Good Hope proposing 4th facility in city's Carlington neighbourhood

The City of Ottawa must consider the potential impact on the surrounding community before allocating money from a federal housing fund to supportive housing projects, councillors decided Wednesday.

The funding in question comes from the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), which pledged $176 million toward housing in Ottawa. Ninety per cent of that money was allocated to affordable housing projects that are ready to build but lack funding, such as the proposed Shepherds facility.

The Alberta government is making a navigation and support centre to provide safe shelter for the homeless in Edmonton permanent and has announced plans for a similar facility to be created in Calgary.

The UCP government announced it was setting up the centre in mid-January, largely to deal with the hundreds of homeless people displaced after Edmonton police dismantled eight encampments deemed by the city to be high risk.

Last fall, Charron and her team with the support of the Pierrefonds–Roxboro borough and the city of Montreal scured a building that will only become available in January 2025 after major renovations.

At the end of April, the team identified another building, only to find out it was too severely contaminated for use.

"We're now May 29 and we have nowhere to go," said Charron.

In a statement, Robert Beaudry, the executive committee member responsible for homelessness, said the city is meeting with Quebec's social services minister today to try and find a solution to Ricochet's lack of space.

Lorsque le bureau de l’élu de QS a appris ce qui se passait au 2215, boulevard Rosemont, des membres de l’équipe de Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois sont allés à la rencontre des locataires.

«On a des gens qui nous ont dit qu’ils voulaient payer leur loyer, qu’ils ont essayé de toutes les manières pour essayer de le faire en allant même chercher des adresses sur le registraire des entreprises. Et ces gens-là se retrouvent quand même devant le TAL», poursuit M. Nadeau-Dubois.

The Alberta government is making a navigation and support centre to provide safe shelter for the homeless in Edmonton permanent and has announced plans for a similar facility to be created in Calgary.

The UCP government announced it was setting up the centre in mid-January, largely to deal with the hundreds of homeless people displaced after Edmonton police dismantled eight encampments deemed by the city to be high risk.

Welcome Hall Mission CEO Sam Watts on a new report revealing Montreal is taxing emergency shelters.

"We've got people who walk alongside them for a couple of months, and then they're on their own," he told The Current's Matt Galloway.

The program was born mid-2021, after intervention workers noticed many people falling into homelessness since the beginning of the pandemic didn't fit the usual profile.

"[They're] somebody who's just struggling and a few dollars away from homelessness, unable to pay their rent, or they're part of maybe a classic rental eviction," he said.

«Sur mon bail, c’est écrit que je paie en cash, ici, dans l’immeuble. Ça fait trois mois que j’essaie de payer, mais eux veulent que je paie avec des chèques postdatés ou que je fasse une heure de trajet pour aller donner l’argent comptant à leur bureau», explique William Riley, qui vit depuis plus d’un an au 2215 boulevard Rosemont, à Montréal.

M. Riley est poursuivi au Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL) par son nouveau locateur, la société 2215 Rosemont inc., appartenant à Mark Kilajian. Ce dernier demande la résiliation du bail à cause d’un retard de paiement de son loyer de plus de trois semaines. Dans l’immeuble de 67 logements, une vingtaine d’autres locataires ont reçu le même avis.

Matthew Hayes, a sociology professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B., said between the 2016 and the 2021 census, Halifax lost 8,140 housing units priced below $1,000 a month. This is a 25 per cent reduction in the stock.

"If you're looking for a low-income apartment or a low-rent apartment, they're almost impossible to find in Halifax," said Hayes, whose work focuses on gentrification and urban studies. "They're disappearing much faster than they're being replaced."

Instead of wasting a billion dollars on a useless roof, why not just leave it without a roof?

After all, the "Big Owe" spent the first 11 years with it's roof in the basement.

-- Barbra Hudson

McCrae is among a growing number of seniors who are impacted by evictions in the form of renovations or demolitions — and struggling to afford housing across Canada, according to CanAge, a national seniors' advocacy organization.

"Older people, particularly those with accessibility needs, are in a pinch like never before in the rental market," said Laura Tamblyn Watts, the CEO of CanAge.

City hall enforced its eviction notice at Halifax’s Grand Parade encampment today by disconnecting power to the tents still at the site, but even on one of the coldest days of the year, the people living there refuse to leave.

At 9 a.m. this morning, city crews and volunteers from the encampment disconnected the only source of power, which provided heating to all the tents, plunging people living there into the bitter cold.

Kevin McGuire is one of 12 people still living on the property. For him, the tent was a safe space, warm, and comfortable enough.

“I’m feeling really cold. It was minus 25 this morning. They took away my power which was my only source of heat,” said McGuire. “This is only going to make me sicker and I’d be lucky if I can survive it.

Instead of wasting a billion dollars on a useless roof, why not just leave it without a roof?

After all, the "Big Owe" spent the first 11 years with it's roof in the basement.

-- Barbra Hudson

The shelter in Pierrefonds-Roxboro is being forced to move by the end of March.

The regional health authority is reclaiming the building Ricochet has been using as it needs the space.

“We have always known we were going to have to move, the space was loaned to us for free by the CIUSSS,” executive director Tania Charron said.

QUEBEC — With Premier François Legault and his government describing conditions as a perfect storm, Quebec’s minister responsible for social services announced Thursday that the province will devote an additional $15.5 million for shelters to help unhoused people on the street make it through the winter.

“It took a pandemic to get this place to open,” said general director Tania Charron. “Because no one believed there was homelessness in the West Island. No-bo-dy.”

The Quebec government is awarding a subsidy of between $5 million and $7 million for two Los Angeles Kings exhibition games in Quebec City, to be held at the Centre Vidéotron in October 2024.

Finance Minister Eric Girard made the announcement on Tuesday morning. He was asked several times about the amount of government assistance.

The number of people living in emergency shelters or on the streets surged in all regions of Quebec over the last four years but rose most sharply outside Montreal, a new report says.

Commissioned by the province’s Health Department, the report found that “visible” homelessness in Quebec increased by about 44 per cent between April 2018 and October 2022, and by 33 per cent in Montreal.

The two also vigorously denounced Quebec's affordable housing program, the PHAQ, which replaced the Accès-Logis program. In two years, the PHAQ has only led to the construction of 46 housing units, none ready to receive occupants.

"Two years later, their program has resulted in zero housing units being built. The proof is in the pudding. The CAQ program doesn't work. It's a total failure and we're in the middle of a housing crisis. It's unacceptable. It's an embarrassing record," Nadeau-Dubois said.

Heavy machinery was at the site of a homeless encampment at the Vancouver foot of the Oak Street Bridge on Friday, as crews worked to enforce an order clearing people who were sheltering there.

Contractors hired by the province removed piles of refuse and several propane tanks, amid protests from housing activists.

“This housing crisis was not caused by unhoused people and it’s time to stop punishing unhoused people for existing and for this housing crisis,” Ryan Sudds, an organizer with Stop the Sweeps, told media.

Vivre en logement locatif contribue à l'appauvrissement d'un nombre croissant de ménages, estime Cédric Dussault, qui représente des locataires. Il réagit au rapport déposé par la Société canadienne d'hypothèque et de logement (SCHL) qui relève notamment que le loyer moyen a augmenté de 7,9 % depuis un an dans le Grand Montréal.

Philadelphia ... went from around 20,000 evictions in 2019 to 15,000 in the last 12 months.

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Quebec has increased by a whopping 44 per cent since 2018, a new report has found.

In terms of sheer numbers, Montreal is by far the most affected, accounting for the majority of homeless people in Quebec.

During Tuesday's study of Bill 31 on housing, QS MNA Andrés Fontecilla and PQ MNA Joël Arseneau tabled several amendments to extend the protection offered by the "Françoise David Act."

Among other things, they proposed lowering the age limit from 70 to 65 and reducing the length of employment required to benefit from this protection from ten to five years.

In about an hour, they worked out a deal. Brown (the tenant) had already applied for emergency rental assistance from the city. Until it came through and she could pay off her debt, Attas would lower the rent from $850 to $700. They also agreed to split the cost of the outstanding water bill, and Attas would make repairs.

Attas (the landlord) said he prefers mediation too. For one thing, evictions are expensive, he said. “I think businesswise, it is the right thing to do,” Attas said. “We should keep the tenant in the home.”

FACT SHEET: White House Summit on Building Lasting Eviction Prevention Reform

2022-08-02

Today, the White House and U.S. Department of Treasury are hosting a White House Summit on Building Lasting Eviction Prevention Reform. As funds for Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) are beginning to wind down, the Summit will focus on the need for an all-out effort to build lasting reform – including through the use of remaining American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds from ERA and State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) assistance.

Pueblo County eviction and diversion program makes progress to help people stay housed

In 2022, Colorado legal services created a new service called the Pueblo County Eviction Diversion Program. This program is focused on helping people who have fallen behind on their rent payments.

Established by city ordinance, the pandemic-inspired program is guided by one goal: To settle disagreements between landlords and tenants outside of court and without an eviction filing, which can make it harder for tenants to secure safe and affordable housing in the future, even if a judge rules in their favor.

The TEDP not only benefitted the recipients but kept courts moving as judges were able to dismiss eviction cases from their dockets while the participants received assistance.

Las Vegas Justice Court will use the grant funds to establish a summary eviction diversion program with a mission to provide a judicially supervised initiative that utilizes CARE Teams, community partnerships, and stakeholder collaborations to address the holistic needs of individuals and families at risk of eviction or housing instability by identifying creative housing solutions and connecting those individuals to resources, services and housing assistance, thereby avoiding preventable evictions and reducing costs associated with evictions.

Under this program, if a tenant owes less than $3,000 in back rent, landlords must try mediation in good faith before eviction. If after 30 days the two sides cannot come to an agreement or a tenant has not shown up to mediation, the landlord can go to court to enforce the eviction. The result seems to be a boon for both parties: Tenants stay in their homes, while landlords are paid.

Between 2012 and 2018, Philadelphia averaged more than 25,000 eviction filings each year, according to data compiled by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

Between June 2022 and June 2023, the city recorded less than 15,000 filings.

One of the main reasons: Philadelphia’s mandatory Eviction Diversion Program.

Instead of threatening eviction, however, Natasha’s building manager did something that, just a few years ago, wouldn’t have been an option in Philadelphia: She referred Natasha to Philadelphia’s Eviction Diversion Program (EDP), a collaboration between the City, legal support groups, housing counseling nonprofits, landlord advocacy organizations and others. It helps tenants at risk of being evicted go through mediation with their landlords to come up with a solution to keep people housed - and landlords paid.

Early in 2022, Dr Yan Li, a Yale graduate with a biostatistics doctorate, found herself suffering from the effects of bipolar disorder and unable to pay the homeowner’s association fees for her San Diego apartment. Instead of being met with support and resources, Li was fatally shot by law enforcement officials while being evicted from her home.

The grant is the largest the company is making to any single eviction prevention program nationally. It will help fund Iowa Legal Aid's Eviction Diversion Project, which provides legal services and rent assistance for Iowans who face losing their homes.

The Eviction Diversion Program is administered by Legal Aid of North Carolina, and provides legal representation to low-income residents of Durham who are facing eviction. The goal of the Eviction Diversion Program is to help clients avoid eviction judgements and, when possible, to enable clients to remain in their current homes.