Historic Boston building being renovated to better combat growing homelessness

Massachusetts’ largest day shelter operated for 40 years in a building built for a utility company in 1906, forcing shelter employees to make the most of the unconventional space.

Renovating the historic building will turn things around and help St. Francis House better meet the needs of Boston’s growing homeless population.

“We made do with the space as it was set up for a power company, but our needs are obviously very different,” said Andrew Russell, the shelter’s vice president of philanthropy and external relations.

“It’s going to be pretty transformative,” Russell said of the multimillion-dollar renovation, all raised, while speaking with the Herald in the shelter’s temporary space during its annual Christmas celebration.

St. Francis House purchased the office tower on Boylston Street, past the Common, in 1984, four years after the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It served as the headquarters of the Boston Edison Illuminating Company for decades, until the 1950s.

President and CEO Karen LaFrazia spoke about the challenges she and her colleagues at the shelter faced as they tried to manage a surge in new guests last year, which has only increased over the past year. of the last 12 months.

“There are so many people inside this building,” LaFrazia told the Herald last Christmas. “In that back room, you literally have to step over people. In the upstairs room there are no chairs. … In the morning, we open at 6:30 a.m., there is already a line of people waiting to get in.”