Creating Homes.
Rebuilding Lives.
While Maine continues to face a severe shortage of affordable housing, Furniture Friends works every day to support individuals and families in maintaining their housing and transitioning beyond homelessness. The essential furniture we provide does more than fill a room—it creates a sense of safety, stability, and dignity that is foundational to health and wellbeing. With community support, Furniture Friends has been Creating Homes and Rebuilding Lives officially since 2012. But our work dates back even earlier than that.
The Greater Portland Charitable Furniture Center started out in 1997 as a small group of social workers volunteering their time to address a need they saw again and again within the community. But without a strong foundation of support and funding, over time their work came to a standstill. In 2012 a new group of community leaders joined them and created a structure of volunteers, board members and staff to continue the necessary work that had begun. They assumed GPCFC’s non-profit designation and from that, Furniture Friends was born.
Furniture Friends is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Westbrook, ME that reduces homelessness and improves housing stability by collecting donated furniture and distributing it to low-income individuals and families in Southern Maine.
With ongoing support from the community, we are able to fulfill our mission of “Creating homes. Rebuilding Lives.”
All of our furniture is donated by generous community members, hotels/motels, schools/colleges, restaurants, retirement communities, furniture stores and even local craftsmen. It is either dropped off to us, or our team can pick-up items within the greater Portland area. Our team then inspects, cleans and redistributes items.
Furniture Friends is funded entirely through individual donors, fundraising events and grants.
The recipients of our furniture comes from all backgrounds and walks of life. We believe everyone deserves a safe, stable and comfortable home and having a bed to sleep on or a table to share a meal with your family is essential. Yet many folks in our community lack the financial resources to purchase furniture on their own. Recipients include formerly unhoused individuals, neighbors recovering from substance abuse, new or recent immigrants, families experiencing domestic violence, veterans, disabled and elderly individuals.
Our service area includes the following cities and towns:
You can support our work by making a monetary donation, setting up a recurring gift, volunteering with us or donating a furniture item! You can also subscribe to our newsletter by emailing us at info@furniturefriends.org and follow us on social media for regular updates on our work.
Furniture Friends has a team of 6 full-time staff led by an Executive Director, Tae Chong. The team includes an Operations Director, Warehouse Manager, Warehouse Associate, Community Engagement Coordinator and a Development & Communications Manager. They are supported by our Board of Directors and countless volunteers. Visit www.furniturefriends.org/ourteam to learn more.
Our tax ID is 01-0513662
Furniture Friends was founded in 2012 with the belief that every person deserves a home that is safe, affordable and comfortable. Our experience has shown us that this safety and comfort is not equally accessible to all people in our community–and that black, indigenous, and people of color experience poverty at much higher rates than their white neighbors. Furniture Friends is committed to antiracism in our work to ensure that we are building safer, more secure communities for all our neighbors. As a majority-white organization that serves a larger constituency of people of color, we know that we must support peaceful efforts meant to bring change to a system that oppresses and discriminates against black people and other minorities.
We can do better. We must do better. Black Lives Matter.
We will continue to:
