Amy Tulk is the executive director of the Home Again Furniture Bank. She says the group constantly faces a waitlist of between 80 and 100 people and families in need of furniture for their homes. (CBC)
A St. John’s furniture bank says people across the northeast Avalon Peninsula are having trouble stocking their home with the basics.
Home Again Furniture Bank works with housing partners across the region to supply people with basic amenities like beds, couches and dining room tables. They provide hundreds of pieces of free furniture each year, but executive director Amy Tulk told CBC News the group is working all out to keep with demand.
“We have people from all sorts of backgrounds, circumstance, ages, who are truly suffering,” Tulk said Friday, adding the waitlist of people hoping to get furniture is consistently around 80 to 100 people.
“The number of families requiring our service is also rising in terms of the overall look of who we’re serving. So last year, I think it was around 68 per cent of our deliveries were to families.”
Tulk said she’d like to see more done to support people once they find a place to live, adding having furniture is a big part of that.
“There is a lot of discussion around the housing crisis, around homelessness in the region. And there needs to be this discussion, but I think the next part of that discussion needs to be how we create homes and stable homes for individuals when they become housed,” she said.
She shared a story of a person who recently received furniture, saying it helped her get back on her feet.
“The level of stress in her life was eased tremendously just knowing that she wouldn’t have only four walls and a roof. She would have the furniture and the items that make a house a home,” she said.
“When we turn houses into homes, we’re providing a very solid foundation where people can grow and do … so much more than survive. They can thrive. They can move forward in their lives.”
Tulk said the furniture bank has prioritized the need for beds, saying the organization can never get enough to meet demand while meeting quality standards.
The increased demand has also brought costs up, Tulk said, saying they’ve doubled the amount of trucks on the road in recent years and are increasing deliveries by 20 per cent year over year.
Donations have also changed, she added, which has caused the organization to rely on other revenue streams. Home Again operates the Again and Again thrift store in St. John’s, where they accept donations and items to resell to put toward furniture costs.
LISTEN | Hear Amy Tulk’s full conversation with the CBC’s Darrell Roberts:
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