A local furniture bank gives donated household items to recently housed residents and families.
Home Sweet Home is located in Maplewood and serves both city and county residents who are low-income, survivors of abuse, were recently unhoused, or come from a variety of other situations.
The nonprofit lets families shop for everything from beds and couches to lamps and toasters and delivers them for free the next day.
Scott McIntosh, Home Sweet Home's Development Director, said 60% of the families they serve have a household income of less than $12,000 per year. And volunteers serve about 6 families per day.
Jade Aubrey / KMOX
"Furniture poverty is sort of a newer thing," McIntosh said. "One in three people experience furniture poverty in there lifetime, which is kind of a shocking statistic."
He added that even now, over a year after the May 16th tornado, 25% of their clients continue to be residents and families impacted by the tornado.
Home Sweet Home was started in a small warehouse on Locust St. in 2018 by Betsy Reznicek, who identified a need for donated furniture for women escaping domestic violence situations with their children. Eight years later, the nonprofit operates out of a 16-thousand square-foot warehouse with over 50 regular volunteers 4 box trucks.
Jade Aubrey / KMOX
'There are about 66,00 food banks around the country and there are only, from what we have uncovered, about 200 furniture banks," McIntosh said. "In Missouri there's two, us and one in Kansas City."
On average, qualifying families have to wait an average of 22 days from their first point of contact until they can shop in the Home Sweet Home warehouse. McIntosh said that's 22 days some families might go without beds, or kitchen utensils or bath towels.
"We hear so often from parents the fact that, their kids now have a bed, they have a place to sit at the table and do homework and or to gather as a family, or a couch to sit on a relax so they're not just on the floor," he said.
Jade Aubrey / KMOX
Learn more at the podcast above.
You can donate furniture and household items to Home Sweet Home either by bringing items into the Maplewood warehouse or by scheduling a time for the items to be picked up.
