dubuc took a tent and her belongings and found a place to sleep under a tree in the woods behind the closed shelter. she stayed there for a month. psychosocial workers with ricochet brought her food and water and made sure she was ok. at 50 years old, dubuc, who had never stayed in a tent before, found herself “wilderness camping in pierrefonds.”
when she was forced to leave by a security firm, she slept in her sleeping bag on the balcony of a 74-year-old friend who had a one-and-a-half-room apartment. she put up plastic sheeting to shield herself from the rain. but her friend had drug issues, so she had to leave, dubuc said.
“i tried to look for lodging, and i cried over what my life had become,” dubuc said. she had lived at ricochet for nearly two years after her landlord threw her and several other tenants out to do renovations, she said. dubuc lost all of her furniture, her new washer/dryer and her two cats.
marie-france dubuc looks out the window of her room at ricochet centre on the grounds of the former ignatian spiritual centre on gouin blvd.
john kenney
/
montreal gazette
“when i first arrived here, i was demolished,” said dubuc, who has a room in ricochet’s new location she shares with one other woman. “i was nearly dead. i no longer had the will to fight.
“today, i feel strong enough to help others and volunteer, and to take care of myself.”
while it was closed, the centre ran shuttle buses from the west island to shelters in the city to provide lodging. it also provided meals and services two days a week from the westview bible church. ricochet is the only emergency shelter operating between downtown montreal and vaudreuil-dorion, an expanse of about 40 km.