Read about Community Warehouse’spartcipation in a nbationwide furniture bank coalition!
Throughout its 24+ year history, Community Warehouse has been a leader in shaping the furniture bank model, exploring creative ways to redistribute extra gently-used furnishings in the community to support comfort and dignity in the homes of our neighbors. At the same time, we’ve kept our sights on the bigger picture, recognizing that lasting impact requires advocacy and systems-level change to ensure access to essential furnishings is prioritized across communities. Despite the fact that 1 in 3 U.S. residents experience furniture poverty, furniture and household items are too often left out of housing conversations.
This year, Community Warehouse Executive Director Anna Kurnizki along with four other furniture bank leaders founded Furnish Together: The National Furniture Bank Coalition, a first-of-its-kind network uniting furniture banks across the U.S. On July 22, 2025, the coalition gathered in Washington, D.C. for an inaugural National Furniture Poverty Summit, which was attended by representatives from more than 40 furniture banks. After the summit, Furnish Together hosted its first public policy briefing, “A Bed for Every Head.”
Local furniture banks play a critical role in housing stability—creating homes, not just units. Furnish Together was formed to equip, connect, and magnify the work of furniture banks nationwide, providing:
- Shared resources: Strengthening the capacity of local furniture banks by sharing tools, infrastructure, and support to provide more families with essential furnishings.
- Collective advocacy: Raising national awareness about furniture poverty and advocating for policies that connect access to furniture with stable, affordable housing.
- National momentum: Collecting and sharing data to demonstrate the impact of furniture banks and drive research-backed solutions nationwide.
The coalition encourages participating furniture banks to look beyond day-to-day service delivery and toward upstream systems change–engaging in advocacy, refining best practices, and amplifying their voices in policy conversations.
We’re proud to be part of this nationwide effort to raise awareness and advocate for systemic change to end furniture poverty and ensure every household has access to dignified, well-furnished homes. Learn more and follow along at furnishtogether.org.