From Housing to Home: 15 Years of FIND
In 2009, Edmonton’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness were gaining momentum, when provincial and city plans to end homelessness identified a gap. People were moving out of homelessness and into housing, but they were stepping into empty apartments. No beds, no tables, no dishes. Just four walls, a roof, and a floor. Housing support programs could provide peoplea set of keys, but without furniture, the spaces were incomplete, and housing stability at risk.
To close the gap, Homeward Trust and sector partners including Edmonton Emergency Relief Services (EERS) and Alberta Job Corps created Edmonton’s first furniture bank, transforming community donations into the building blocks of a real home. On the ground, work was practical and fast-moving from the start. Furniture had to be sourced. Donations had to be organized. Systems had to be built from the ground up. This foundational work brought FIND to fruition as a social enterprise of Homeward Trust supporting people moving out of homelessness with essential furnishings and the ability to provide more than just empty rooms but hope, dignity, and a place to create community.
“Housing is the foundation,” says Homeward Trust CEO Susan McGee. “But stability depends on what happens next. A home needs to be livable, comfortable, and personal. That’s where FIND has made such a difference for people moving forward with their lives.”
Homeward Trust has emphasized lasting housing stability depends on coordinated systems that make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. FIND is a key part of that system, helping people furnish their apartments and begin their next chapter with security and ownership over their space.
FIND opened its first storefront in 2011 in the Landsdowne neighbourhood, offering a dedicated space for furniture and clothing donations from community partners such as Bissell Centreand opened its online store in 2017.
Today, FIND operates from the same, but newly renovated, 22,000-square-foot retail space, where every donated item is carefully inspected by both people and the Orkin bed bug dog. Housing support workers and program participants are invited to choose from quality, gently used furniture and household essentials, giving them the freedom to create a space that truly feels like home.
For Bev Latta, FIND’s General Manager, the mission is clear. With more than 20 years of retail and merchandising experience, she helps shape how FIND operates and how it serves clients.
“Every item we place in a home represents a fresh start,” Latta says. “It’s not just about furnishing an apartment; it’s about giving someone confidence and dignity that come with creating a space that feels like their own.”
That sense of dignity is what makes FIND different. Rather than receiving a pre-packed set of furniture, clients, or their Housing Outreach workers, are able to select items that suit their space and needs, a couch that fits, a table that works, kitchenware that feels right. For many, it’s the first time in years they’ve been able to make decisions about their own space.
Those moments are made possible by the community. Donations arrive from across Edmonton. Donations which might otherwise be discarded filling landfills, instead of becoming part of someone’s new beginning.
Early partnerships with community organizations helped FIND grow quickly. From the beginning, the work has been shaped by community collaboration with housing providers, social agencies, donors, volunteers, and staff working together to ensure people moving into housing had the essentials to make it a home.
On average, FIND now furnishes 130 homes every month through Homeward Trust housing support programs.
Even through the challenges of the pandemic, the work continued but numbers only tell part of the story.
“Seeing the joy on someone’s face when they find the piece that makes their place feel like home. That’s what stays with you,” Latta says.
As we celebrate FIND and 15 years of furnishing hope and turning community donations into homes, we invite you to join us March 7th at FIND. More than an anniversary, it’s a milestone shaped by thousands of lives changed, one room, one home, one fresh start at a time thanks to a community of partners, supporters, and public leaders who have helped make this work possible. Every day, new beginnings are being built.
Watch for the next post in this series as we celebrate 15 years of FIND.
