“Just the basics makes a huge difference—to be able to have a family meal at the dining room table, to cuddle on the couch, to be able to put clothes away in the dresser. What we’re really trying to do is help families create a home for themselves.”
Who We Serve
While there are resources available for some families to buy basic furniture and home goods, or to pay for a moving truck to get to and from a furniture bank, many others are falling through the cracks as they move out of homeless and domestic violence shelters.
It’s estimated that about one-third of Boston area homeless families move into permanent housing with no beds to sleep on, no kitchen or dining room table to eat at, no couch to cuddle on, no curtains to cover windows, no pots and pans to cook with, no lamps to read by, and more. At Furnishing Hope, we believe that everyone should have a place they can call home - a place to feel safe and comfortable. We believe helping families create a home for themselves gives families a much better start as they rebuild their lives.
How We Do It
Furnishing Hope works closely with more than 28 Boston area agencies to find families that are moving into stable housing without any of the furniture and home goods needed to create a home.
To these families, we offer furniture, home goods in the form of “Starter Sets” (bedding, kitchen, bath & toiletries), as well as lamps, curtains, and more. We then deliver the furniture and home goods directly to each family’s apartment and help with set up. Our new and gently-used furniture and home goods are all donated by community members.
How We Started
The Furnishing Hope story began in 2010 when founder Suzy Palitz was volunteering to help homeless children.
Curious about how families fared after they moved into permanent housing, Suzy learned that many families were still sleeping on the floor, using cardboard boxes as makeshift kitchen tables, and didn’t have lamps to read by, months or even a year after moving out of a shelter. She found that all too often, parents were faced with the choice between buying food for their children or finding a way to obtain basic items such as beds, kitchen tables, dressers, bedding, towels, dinnerware, and toiletries. These families couldn’t afford to rent a truck to get to and from a furniture bank; they couldn’t afford to buy the necessities; they lacked the family support. These families had housing, but they were living in bare apartments. Suzy knew there had to be a different way.
Less than two years later, Suzy launched Furnishing Hope of Massachusetts, Inc. Since then, Furnishing Hope has provided over 645 Boston Area families (over 1800 children and adults) with the essential furniture, home goods, moving and set up services they needed to create a home for themselves.