A story from our founder, Ruth Kershaw:

A few days ago I heard the phrase “furniture poverty” from Dan Kershaw [no relation], the CEO of the Toronto Furniture Bank. Like ours, this organization started 20 years ago, but now has 52 paid staff members, 12 trucks and an annual budget of $4million!

When Shelter to Home started almost 10 years ago, our clientele was exclusively homeless people. That isn’t true any more. Half of our clients this month were already housed, but were experiencing “furniture poverty”. They did not have the money to furnish their homes. All their money disappears for basic necessities, that is, housing and food.

As we continue to serve our community, we are discovering a new niche for service: those living in “furniture poverty”.