MISSION
The mission of Home Sweet Home is to give under-served families a sense of pride and to improve the quality of their lives by providing basic household furnishings.
VISION
Home Sweet Home uplifts our community and inspires hope by providing every person a bed to sleep in, turning houses into homes.
VALUES
Home Sweet Home is a place where…
- Mission is first.
- Everyone is respected and treated with dignity.
- We thrive on collaboration within the community.
- We are caring, compassionate, and kind.
- We are a leader among other furniture banks nationwide.
OUR STORY
The idea for Home Sweet Home was born out of a community need. After working at several different nonprofits in the area, founder and executive director Betsy Reznicek realized there was no single agency available to help struggling families with home furnishings as they transitioned into a new home. Organizations would struggle to find a couch for one client, a bed for another, a place to store these items, and a way to transport them once it was located. Betsy knew someone needed to open a furniture bank that could help service clients in the St. Louis area, so she set out to make that happen.
A small group of passionate and motivated community members formed to evaluate the need and explore the possibility of starting the only furniture bank in St. Louis. With a rented truck, borrowed warehouse space, two staff members, and a donation $3,000, Home Sweet Home delivered to its first family in October of 2015.
Through the outpouring of support from this community and the amazing partnerships formed with other nonprofit organizations in the area, Home Sweet Home now serves over 1,000 families a year. We run four trucks daily with fifteen staff members and have hundreds of volunteers. Donors keep our 13,000 square foot warehouse packed with gently-used or new furnishings. We’ve re-homed over 450,000 individual household items to families in need.
WHY HOME SWEET HOME?
In order to effectively address homelessness in America and impact a long-term solution to this problem, people transitioning out of homelessness need help with stability. At Home Sweet Home, we believe part of that stability comes from establishing a first home stocked with the necessities for everyday life. Part of maintaining a home is usability and affordability. We can help make taking the first step to stable home life comfortable and accessible.
SERVICES
Our services begin with collecting new or gently-used furniture and other basic home furnishings that are dropped off or picked up by one of our four trucks. We then work with case managers at one of our 50+ partner agencies to find families in need. Our staff will work closely with each family so they may choose every piece they will receive. Finally, we deliver the items to our family’s new home. If you or someone you know needs access to our services, please see our FAQs section here for more details.
WHO WE SERVE
Our partner agencies work with an array of individuals and families in the greater St. Louis area who are struggling with stability, homelessness, and/or re-integration. We serve individuals, families, single-parent households, multi-family households, and everything in between.
Clients With Children
Clients Who Are Veterans
Clients Who Are People of Color
PARTNER AGENCIES
Visit this link for a full list of our Partner Agencies.
2023-2024 STRATEGIC PLAN
Visit this link for an overview of our 2023-2024 Strategic Plan.
FINANCIAL INFORMATION & ANNUAL REPORTS
2015
Although Home Sweet Home began serving clients in 2015, we were fiscally sponsored by the Community Foundation of St. Louis. This means we did not file a return under our own name this year. However, during this time the organization was under the direction of a volunteer board and finance committee that reviewed all financial documents.