Saint Francis House is a nonprofit, nonsectarian, daytime shelter, primarily for the homeless, located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, and founded in the early 1980s.

Over the years of its operation, St. Francis House has dealt with barriers that impede people in overcoming poverty and homelessness, by offering an upward framework of opportunity.

[9][10] Saint Francis House had originally approached the developers to build the atrium out of an unused outdoor parking lot, so that homeless guests would not have to wait on the street in long lines.

The Executive Director of Saint Francis House, Karen LaFrazia, said that this was a very rare occurrence and that in her tenure of more than a decade, she had never seen anything like this and that the environment is safe and a haven for many hundreds of people every day.

There are also rehabilitative programs (employment, housing, mental health, substance abuse counseling and lifeskills training) to help those who are able to move themselves out of poverty and homelessness, to achieve lives of independence, self-respect, and hope.

Rather than being left to the streets, which can be harsh, the day center provides a place to go and be cared for and also be part of a community, typically much more wide-ranging in services and scope than the nighttime emergency shelter scheme.