St. Francis House, the downtown Boston day shelter that provides meals and services to adults who are unhoused, will next month unveil a top-to-bottom redesign shaped by the trauma people it serves have experienced.
The day shelter opened in 1984, in the old Boston Edison headquarters on Boylston Street near Chinatown. It serves about 500 people a day, according to Karen LaFrazia, the organization’s president and CEO. LaFrazia, who started with the organization 29 years ago, said it became clear to her the shelter itself added to people’s stress. She saw it right when they walked through the front door.
“You would come in, and you would see people with their shoulders up to their ears and not exhaling,” LaFrazia said. “Being triggered just by the physical space.”
The old two-story lobby had marble floors and walls, so the sounds of guests and staff talking, metal detectors beeping and shipments of food being wheeled in reverberated everywhere. The dining room was just off the main entry space, and it drew crowds…