KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Home is whatever you make it - and Flourish, a furniture bank in KC, helps people make it their own.
"It's just, it's not a good feeling seeing as though you know, okay we have a home, we have a nice place for our family. But where are they going to sit? How are they going to live comfortably," said Carter, a shopper at flourish.
Flourish says furniture is often overlooked when it comes to fixing housing insecurity.
Since founding in 2020 Flourish has given away 133,550 items to furnish 3,339 homes - impacting a total of 8,348 people.
The furniture is all donated. Carter was happy to give it a second chance.
"If the furniture could talk, what stories does this have? So we're very grateful to be able to give it a second home and to give it kind of a rebirth and be passed along with another family to tell another story," he said.
He says he and his partner Elizabeth had to move suddenly. Completely resettling around the holidays wasn't easy.
"We were really really really grateful that Flourish exists to help out families in need."
Maybe it's a move, maybe it's getting out of shelter, maybe it's for a refugee or a domestic violence survivor.
Whatever it is, Flourish helps fill that gap between getting a home and making it one.
"Things are looking up to be a happy, blessed, merry Christmas for us," Carter said.
You can donate, buy materials or give monetary donations directly to Flourish.
KSHB 41 reporter Grant Stephens covers stories involving downtown Kansas City, Missouri up to North Kansas City. Share your story idea with Grant.
