Our Story

OUR MISSION

Home Sweet Home is a furniture bank that partners with under-served individuals and families to furnish their homes, creating spaces that support stability, comfort, and dignity.

OUR VISION

Home Sweet Home…

Uplifts our community and inspires hope by providing a bed for every person to sleep in and turning houses into homes.
Supports sustainability by reducing waste and giving new life to gently-used furnishings.

OUR VALUES

A furniture bank is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that collects gently-used furniture and household items to provide them to individuals and families in need. These are most often people transitioning out of homelessness or other crisis situations. The goal is to turn empty housing into safe, comfortable homes.

At Home Sweet Home, we take this a step further. What makes our furniture bank extra special is that the people we serve are invited into our warehouse to personally choose every item that will go into their home. This client-choice model isn’t just about furniture—it’s about dignity. We believe everyone deserves the power to create a space that reflects who they are and what makes them feel at home.

OUR STORY

Home Sweet Home began with a simple, powerful idea: everyone deserves a safe, comfortable place to call home.

While working in the St. Louis nonprofit community, our founder and executive director, Betsy Reznicek, noticed a critical gap. Families transitioning out of crisis were often handed the keys to an empty space. Beds, tables, and basic home essentials were out of reach, and no single organization was equipped to fill that gap. Betsy envisioned a dedicated furniture bank that could provide essential furnishings to those in need with dignity and efficiency. She teamed up with a small but determined group of community members, and together they turned that vision into reality.

In October 2015, Home Sweet Home made its very first delivery—with a small group of volunteers, a borrowed warehouse, a rented truck, and $5,000 in seed funding. Since then, thanks to the generosity of our supporters and strong partnerships with local agencies, we’ve grown into a vital community resource.

Today, Home Sweet Home serves more than 1,000 families each year. Our 13,000-square-foot warehouse stays full thanks to generous donors, and our four trucks hit the road daily to pick up furniture donations and deliver to families in need. With support from hundreds of volunteers and our dedicated team of 19 staff members, we’ve rehomed over 600,000 essential household items, turning empty spaces into warm, welcoming homes.

Learn More About Our Impact

WHO WE SERVE

At Home Sweet Home, we are proud to support individuals from diverse backgrounds and circumstances thanks to referrals from our extensive network of 50+ partner agencies throughout the St. Louis area. A referral from one of these agencies is the only avenue through which families and individuals can receive items from Home Sweet Home. By meeting their needs through a service agency, we help ensure the best possible case management services for every individual.

Our clients come to us amidst various challenges, each with their own unique needs and stories. Among those we serve, our services are particularly vital for survivors of domestic abuse, refugees and immigrants, veterans embarking on new chapters of their lives, individuals reintegrating into society after incarceration, and those grappling with mental health issues, disabilities, unemployment, poverty, and homelessness.

View Our Partner Agencies

In 2024, of the 2,800+ individuals we served…