By William Crooks
Local Journalism Initiative
A Sherbrooke day centre for those at risk of homelessness, Ma Cabane’s clientele numbers are holding steady at around 80 per day but could very well rise. The centre, situated on King East, opened its doors back in Jan. of 2021.
“[Attendance] is starting to go up a little bit,” said General Director Marc St-Louis, referring to the daily clientele at Ma Cabane. This summer they served around 80 people per day. Last February and March they had days with upwards of 140 people. It is not, however, a simple equation, he explained, where warm weather means less people and cold weather means more. The only constant is there are less people at the beginning of the month.
St-Louis worries numbers will get high again this winter. At first, they regulated how many clientele they would let in at a time to a maximum of 10. Now they let in up to 40, “which is too much,” he admitted.