Furniture Bank is a registered charity and social enterprise that redistributes gently used furniture and housewares from donors in the community to families and individuals experiencing furniture poverty.  This incredible organization recently moved into TAS’s property at 7 Labatt Avenue in Regent Park. TAS is providing the space to Furniture Bank at a deeply discounted rate as part of our commitment to offer below-market commercial spaces to non-profits, charities, mission-driven organizations, start-ups and small local businesses.  

Furniture Bank’s mission is to end furniture poverty – one family at a time. They use a social enterprise model, that takes the revenues generated through their furniture removal service to fund their charitable activities.

Furniture Bank believes that a house without furniture isn’t a home. As the public, private, and non-profit sectors work together to address the affordable housing crisis and scale up the delivery of affordable housing across the country, those houses will need to be furnished. Children need beds to sleep in and families need dining tables to eat at.

We recently met with Executive Director Dan Kershaw and Director of Development Tammy Peddle to learn more about Furniture Bank and the impact of the below market rent on their organization.  We spoke about furniture poverty, affordable housing, and the circular economy. (Furniture Bank also plays a key role in protecting our environment by diverting millions of pounds of furniture from landfills each year.)

We learned that before moving into the 7 Labatt Avenue site, Furniture Bank operated out of its one location in Etobicoke, which made it difficult to serve families from the east end of the city. Expanding to the east end wouldn’t have been possible without the deeply discounted rent.  

The move to Regent Park is also allowing Furniture Bank to test a scalable operating model. If it works well, they could have satellite locations in different neighbourhoods across the city, allowing them to reach more families and individuals experiencing furniture poverty, and have a greater impact.

We’re so pleased to be playing a small part in supporting Furniture Bank with achieving its mission to end furniture poverty – one sofa and one family at a time.