Community Warehouse Team picks up a furniture donation from a local resident.
Courtesy of Community Warehouse
In the landscape of American poverty, certain essentials–like food and shelter–are widely recognized. Stable housing, in particular, is rightly seen as foundational to health, safety, and the ability to pursue opportunity. Yet for many, housing is just the beginning. Another layer of hardship hides in plain sight: furniture poverty.
It’s a term most people haven’t heard of but easy to understand when you learn about a child sleeping on the floor or a senior eating meals from their lap. These scenes are quietly unfolding across the country, making furniture poverty one of the most invisible aspects of the housing crisis.
Public housing programs routinely cover rent, construction, and wraparound services, but furniture is rarely included. While a family may secure housing, they often move into an empty apartment and lack the resources to furnish it.
Furniture poverty predominantly affects individuals and families facing adversity: leaving domestic violence shelters, exiting homelessness, and trying to rebuild their lives. For many, the absence of a table or a bed isn’t just uncomfortable—it’s destabilizing.
For too long, the inability to access, afford, or maintain essential household furniture and goods for a functional, healthy home has gone unaddressed in public policy, philanthropy, and recovery planning. Only about 250 furniture banks exist in the United States, compared to 60,000 food banks and programs, even though more people face furniture poverty than food insecurity. A survey commissioned by A Wider Circle found that 1 in 3 U.S. residents is currently experiencing furniture poverty. This staggering statistic exposes a hidden problem: few systems exist to support the basic need of furniture, and this gap has real consequences.
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Tackling the Hidden Crisis of Furniture Poverty
Furniture banks across the country have partnered together to form Furnish Together, a national coalition that facilitates coordinated action and shared resources to address furniture poverty. Among the furniture banks is Community Warehouse in Portland, Oregon, one of the largest in the country.
Speakers at the Furniture Coalition discussing furniture poverty and potential solutions. From right to left: Anna Kurnizki, ED of Community Warehouse, Philip Washburn, President of Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, Doreen Bookard, Retired Home Health Care Provider and DC Metro Area Advocate, Eddy Ameen, PH, Chief Program Officer of A Wider Circle, and Deema Tarazi, Senior Policy Advisor at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Shreck LLP.
Courtesy of Furniture Coalition
“We’re working to unite furniture banks across the country,” said Anna Kurnizki, Executive Director of Community Warehouse. “Our goal is to foster a network of partners who share resources and operational practices, drive policy change, and maximize collective impact, so no furniture bank does this work alone—and so together, we can end furniture poverty.”
In July, Furnish Together united leaders from 40+ furniture banks for the inaugural National Furniture Poverty Summit. The event included a walkthrough of new national data and many calls for greater awareness. What emerged was the beginning of a national strategy to solve a long-ignored problem.
“Permanent housing paired with supportive services is the most humane, cost-effective, and proven way to reduce homelessness,” said Kurnizki.
Household essentials aren’t luxuries; they make daily life possible. And, while most Americans don’t think about furniture poverty, access to these basics is a barrier for thousands of families. Furniture poverty has deep psychological and physical effects, impacting school and work success, health, social connections, self-worth, and more.
Turning Empty Spaces Into Homes
Community Warehouse has developed a simple but powerful model for addressing this problem. The nonprofit partners with local social services agencies to redistribute gently-used household goods–from sofas to silverware–to those who need them most, at the right time in their journey toward stability. Clients schedule an appointment to shop for items that match their needs and personal style, transforming empty spaces into livable homes.
This approach is cost-effective and environmentally responsible, diverting thousands of usable items from landfills each year and giving beloved household goods a second life.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., at a 2017 hearing (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call).
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
“Providing more people with access to essential furniture is a practical, powerful step toward housing stability and human dignity, while being sustainable by turning surplus into support for families who need it most,” said Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.
A Coalition-Driven Model for Dignity and Change
Furniture poverty isn’t formally tracked by any national agencies, and lacks dedicated national funding streams, even in large-scale disaster responses. In many metro areas, there are no furniture banks—including in Los Angeles during the recent fires, when so many lost their homes and furniture.
Home with furniture provided by Community Warehouse.
Courtesy of Community Warehouse
To scale nationally, Furnish Together must build a network of existing and emerging furniture banks, partner with aid groups, and foster relationships with housing authorities and policy makers to push for inclusion in policies for housing, anti-poverty, sustainability, and waste prevention.
Furniture banks nationwide face common challenges, including limited storage that prevents them from accepting large, bulk donations, which impacts their ability to respond quickly to surges in need, like those driven by disasters. Furnish Together was formed to address these barriers by facilitating partnerships with large corporations at the national level to collect bulk donations in order to provide consistent inventory for regional furniture banks and quickly respond to large-scale displacements. The coalition is seeking corporate partners that can donate large quantities of quality household furnishings.