Eddy Ameen presents to fellow Furnish America members at the coalition’s July 21 conference, hosted by A Wider Circle
On Monday, July 21, A Wider Circle hosted representatives from 15 furniture banks across the country for a meeting of Furnish Together: The National Furniture Bank Coalition (representatives from another 25 furniture banks joined virtually). On July 22, the group presented a briefing on furniture poverty to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Prior to these meetings, we sat down with Eddy Ameen, A Wider Circle’s Chief Program Officer, to learn more about furniture poverty, and how A Wider Circle is working as part of Furnish Together to put a spotlight on this issue.
AWC Blog: What is furniture poverty? Why has A Wider Circle recently focused on bringing more attention to it?
Eddy Ameen: Furniture poverty is the inability to afford to purchase or maintain an essential item that you need in your home for it to feel functional, stable, or safe. Most people would agree that essential items are things like couches to sit and gather on, beds to sleep on, and dining tables to eat or work at. These are things that many of us have likely been able to take for granted, but we know in the DC Metro Area that a lot of local families come to A Wider Circle not having beds for every member of their household to sleep on. They’re in various states of distress or discomfort because they don’t have the ability to fully use the roof over their heads due to missing some of the ingredients inside.
In the last few years, we have seen successful campaigns, namely in the UK, but also in Canada, to raise awareness and bring more solutions to the forefront on furniture poverty. But in the US, there has been a vacuum for awareness and advocacy around this issue. We felt that with our 24 years and counting of experience, we had the capacity to ask these questions in a way that could bring the same kind of precision and clarity to the work here in this country.
Are there other organizations in the country that do similar work to alleviate this problem?
Yes, there are other organizations that exist across the country, called furniture banks. Like our Essential Support program, a furniture bank collects and redistributes furniture — and sometimes household goods and/or household appliances — for people who meet some criteria. Usually the criteria is based on income or other qualitative measures of need, serving people typically in lower income brackets. The furniture that’s distributed often comes from individual donors, or sometimes furniture banks are lucky to work with other bigger partners like furniture stores, hotels, dorms, etc.
In fact, as part of our effort to shed light on furniture poverty, A Wider Circle has recently joined forces with many of these furniture banks across the country to form Furnish Together: The National Furniture Bank Coalition. On Monday, July 21, we’ll be hosting members of the coalition for a conference at A Wider Circle.
Representatives from 15 furniture banks gathered in person at A Wider Circle for Furnishing America’s July 21 conference, while another 25 furniture banks joined virtually.
Can you share more about the conference?
This is the second annual gathering we’ve opened up to furniture banks across the United States to come together to learn best practices, to share successes, to discuss common strategies to deal with various things like funding volatility, staffing issues, volunteer coverage, and advocacy. In 2024, this was a small gathering with only four furniture banks attending in person and another handful online. This year, the group we invited and expect to join is much larger.
The conference will include at least one session on advocacy training, which is exciting, because the next day we’ll present a briefing about furniture poverty to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. At the briefing, there will be a panel with a client who was recently served via our Home Reimagined initiative to talk about life before and after having ample furniture in her family’s home.
After the briefing, we’re asking visiting furniture bank representatives to stop by their US Reps and Senators offices to invite them to come visit them in their local jurisdictions when they’re back home. We really want to use this briefing to build some groundwork in introducing furniture banks, introducing the concept of furniture poverty, and trying to put some faces and stories to it.
Are there other things A Wider Circle has been doing more recently to help address furniture poverty?
We’ve taken on research efforts to get a handle on whether furniture banks across the country align with our definition of furniture poverty, whether there’s concordance on the items that are deemed essential, who are the most common groups that they serve, and whether the populations they serve reflect what poverty looks like in their region. We’re also looking at how long their wait lists are, how well they’re meeting the demand in their communities, and what level of furniture poverty their families might be in. For example, just a mild or moderate level that could mean missing one, two, or three critical items vs. a more extreme absence of furniture. All information that we’ll be able to discuss further when we gather on the 21st.
We’ve also recently conducted two studies: the first was a survey of our own clients at A Wider Circle. On the day that they come to their appointments, we ask questions like ‘How has not having furniture been impacting their quality of life,’ ‘How important is it for you to receive this furniture,’ and ‘Where else would you get furniture, if not from A Wider Circle?’ — really kind of shedding light on these individual experiences. Another question we ask them is where they rank the expense of furniture among their array of other household needs like kids’ clothing, food in the fridge, rent, and so on.
Then, we also just did a 1,050 person national survey to look at the incidence and prevalence of furniture poverty in the US. So, we’ve got some cool data to share coming up on that.
Eddy and other Furnish America representatives ahead of a panel presentation to lawmakers on Capitol Hill
What are some highlights of what you found in the national survey?
Some of the data we found was surprising. Currently, 32% of all US households are experiencing furniture poverty, meaning they’re missing and unable to afford one or more essential furniture items for their homes. And, 66% of US households have experienced furniture poverty at some point in their lives, with 20% experiencing it three or more times! These numbers are much higher than I would have guessed.
After the events on July 21 and 22, what’s the next step for A Wider Circle in fighting furniture poverty?
We hope to continue what we’re doing with a three-pronged approach. The first two prongs are to keep serving those impacted and to conduct more research. Then, the third prong is advocacy. After the briefing on Capitol Hill, we plan to continue advocating on both the federal and state levels to try to make furniture poverty more consistently studied and find more avenues for ameliorating it. More funding for furniture banks could be one answer, but writ large, we just want to ensure that people who do experience furniture poverty, no matter where they live in the US, have quick, easy, and very low barrier access to some of the most basic necessities — items that many of us take for granted.
Learn more about furniture poverty on our Furniture Poverty webpage. The figures that Eddy references in this interview can be found in this recent data snapshot from Furnish Together. You can also read more about Furnish Together’s day on Capitol Hill here.
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