Ebony had a new apartment, five kids counting on her, and nothing to put inside it. No beds, no table, no place to land after a hard day. She had a roof, but what she didn’t have was a home.
A caseworker referred her to the Chicago Furniture Bank (CFB). A few weeks later, Ebony spent 45 minutes in a showroom on the city’s Southwest Side choosing four beds for the kids, a kitchen table, chairs, and a bookshelf. “It’s a weight off my shoulder right now,” Ebony says. “I just breathed. I just exhaled.”
Furniture Poverty as a Barrier to Housing Stability
Furniture poverty, the inability to access or afford basic household furnishings, is a critical but often overlooked barrier to housing stability.
Securing an apartment is only half the equation. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and most housing agencies fund the roof, not what goes inside. But what goes inside the house is what makes it a home, and it matters to the families living under the roof.
Research published in the Journal of Circular Economy and a DePaul University study of CFB clients both document the downstream effects of furnished homes: better sleep, improved mental health, stronger housing retention, and children performing better in school.
Supplying Chicagoans with Furniture
Founded in 2018, the Chicago Furniture Bank has furnished more than 25,000 homes and served more than 62,000 Chicagoans through a network of more than 325 nonprofit partners. Every client chooses their own furnishings from the showroom. Nothing is handed to them. Individuals can choose what they want to furnish their home with because dignity and autonomy are built into the model from the start…