CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The COVID-19 pandemic made the plight of the homeless more obvious and more challenging across Charlotte and pushed one nonprofit determined to help into overdrive.
Furnish For Good is seeking solutions by helping people transitioning into new homes furnish their living spaces. The organization never expected the huge growth it would face just months after launching.
Furnish for Good launched just weeks before the 2020 lockdown and since then the number of clients they have helped has more than doubled. The number of donations they have received means they’ve already far outgrown their space.
WCNC Charlotte first visited the Furnish For Good showroom in March 2020 not long after the nonprofit launched.
At the time, Monique Smith was finally moving from the shelter into her new home and picking out gently used, donated furniture to fill it.
“It’s been a long time coming," she told WCNC Charlotte that day, grateful for the much-needed help as she finally moved into a new home.
Days later, the showroom shut down but the three Charlotte moms who started the nonprofit kept going.
"The need is greater," co-founder Leslie Faulkner said.
As the pandemic raged, more people needed their help and something else happened: people re-did their homes -- or moved -- and donations poured into the storage center the organization had turned into their own furniture warehouse.
"As we were able to get more inventory we were able to say 'yes' to more participants," Faulkner said.
They work with 18 partner agencies and they’ve completely outgrown their space. Faulkner says she and her team need a new home so that they can help more people.
"Definitely looking for a new space so we can work more efficiently and serve more people."
In the first year, Furnish For Good served 104 families. So far this year they’ve already served more than double that number this year.
"I could not find anywhere to rent because of the moratorium," a woman named Tiffany explained. "We used all of my savings."
She was forced from her apartment and couldn't find a new place to rent and had been living in the shelter with her son before finally finding a new home.
"When I left my apartment, I had to leave a lot of stuff," she said. "I had to leave his bed. I had nowhere to take it. I didn’t have a home."
She now has that home, and thanks to Furnish For Good. it’s filled with furniture.
Furnish For Good is hosting an online fundraiser through Sunday. Designers compete using donated furniture and some of their own favorite pieces to design a room. Everything in the rooms is available to buy with all the money raised going to Furnish For Good. You can check out the online auction at www.furnishforgood.org.
Michelle Boudin: Contact Michelle at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.