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Part one in a series of profiles about Westmount day centre The Open Door

Shane Hughes wanders through the city in a pair of worn-out sneakers, desperate to get out of the cold October night.

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Normally, he would lay down some cardboard in a pedestrian tunnel on Fort St., crawl into a sleeping bag and nod off. But it looks like the sky will open up at any moment and he can feel the damp air in his bones.

So Hughes walks to the all-night McDonald’s on Atwater Ave. and finds a quiet table to fall asleep at. He rises just as the breakfast rush begins around 5 a.m.

In a few hours he will make his way to The Open Door — a day centre run out of an old, former Anglican church in Westmount. At the centre, Hughes can lie down in a pew and sleep knowing that he’ll wake up to a warm plate of food and some friendly faces.

“This is home to some of us,” said Hughes, a short, sinewy Canadian Forces veteran who has been on the streets for nearly two years. “I can’t think of my life without it.”