Reimagining the Future: Breaktime’s Hub Solving Young Adult Homelessness

Some things in life just feel meant to be. One morning, on my way to work, I found myself stopping mid-step outside a building in Downtown Crossing. It was not flashy—no “For Sale” sign or big announcement—but something about it felt significant. The location, the structure, even the Eastern Bank branch on the first floor (a longtime partner of ours)—it all felt like it could be the perfect home for Breaktime .

Fast forward to today, and I could not be more excited that 63 Franklin Street is Breaktime’s new, permanent home. This is not just a building; it is a transformative space that will allow us to scale our impact in ways we have only dreamed about until now.

Why This Matters

A little over a year ago, as part of our strategic planning process, we asked the team and young adults in our program a simple but critical question: What is our biggest barrier to growth? The overwhelming most common answer was our physical space.

For five years, Breaktime operated out of a rented facility at 170 Portland Street, originally envisioned as the site of a cafe that would employ young adults experiencing housing insecurity. At the time, Breaktime was little more than an idea brought to life by my Co-Founder, Tony Shu, and me. Over those five years, Breaktime has grown into a robust team of forty full-time staff, serving hundreds of young adults annually. Renting has always held us back from creating the kind of space our team and Associates truly deserve—a space that inspires dignity, fosters community, and helps us achieve our mission.

So, last fall, we started asking ourselves: Where next?

Downtown Crossing emerged as an ideal location. Easily accessible by public transit, it bridges communities like Dorchester, Roxbury, and Brockton, where many of our Associates live. We also recognized a unique opportunity: in the post-pandemic real estate landscape, owning a building would be more economical than renting and would empower us to make lasting investments in the space.

When we walked through the doors of 63 Franklin Street for the first time, we knew we had found our home. The space was in great condition, and it already had many of the amenities we needed for our young adult Associates–showers, kitchens, closed-door meeting rooms, and more.

Building a Hub for Dignity and Opportunity

The purchase of 63 Franklin Street marks more than a milestone for Breaktime; it represents a revolutionary approach to addressing youth homelessness. Our vision is to create a comprehensive hub for support and opportunity— a one-stop resource that addresses the diverse and interconnected needs of the young adults we serve.

Each of the building’s six floors will be dedicated to a distinct purpose.

First Floor: A social enterprise and retail space that will create job opportunities for young adults experiencing homelessness, operated in partnership with an outside organization. Here, young adults will gain hands-on experience, connecting their work to the community in a meaningful way.

Second Floor: A health clinic run by Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, providing primary care, mental health services, and other critical supports tailored to young adults.

Third Floor: A drop-in resource hub, featuring showers, laundry facilities, a food pantry, and hygiene products. This floor will also serve as a welcoming space for our outreach team to connect young people with Breaktime’s programs.

Fourth Floor: The Hammett Ory Program and Education Hub (aka, the HOPE Hub), a dedicated space for our job training programming, including Launchpad, Flight Boosters, and individualized case management.

Fifth Floor: A collaboration hub for systemic advocacy and strategy, where our non-program staff will tackle the structural causes of youth homelessness.

Basement: We are still exploring and finalizing the use of this floor, but given that the basement is finished and has two showers, bathrooms, and a kitchen, we are excited to put this space to use in providing resources and opportunities to our young adults in some way.

This is more than a building. It is a space that will affirm the dignity and worth of every young person who walks through our doors. We will be able to address not just the immediate needs of our Associates but also the systemic barriers they face. Whether they come to us for job training, fresh laundry, or just a safe place to connect with a supportive adult, we want them to feel like, “This is what I deserve.”

By leveraging this space, we will triple the reach of our program and deepen its impact tremendously. The collaborative design of the Hub enables us to partner with organizations, like Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, to create a network of support that no single organization could provide alone.

Looking Ahead

We officially moved in on December 13, 2024, and we will begin renovations in the coming weeks to bring our vision to life. In the coming years, we hope that this hub will not only transform how we serve young adults in Boston but also serve as a model for addressing young adult homelessness nationwide.

As a lifelong resident of the Greater Boston community, I am so excited about what this means for our city, our state, and the future of our young adults. To me, this Hub for Solving Young Adult Homelessness is the cornerstone for systemic change, a declaration of our belief in the power and potential of young people.

At Breaktime, we envision a future where every young adult has the resources and opportunities to build a life of stability and purpose. With 63 Franklin Street, we are many steps closer to making that future a reality.

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Thank you, Chris Cotrone and Julia Donegan , for your support on this piece, and thank you, Chris, for taking the photo.