June 10, 2023 • 30 mins
Oli Mohammed is the founder and executive director of The Houston Furniture Bank. You should visit their second hand store where you can buy furniture from major brands at unbeatable prices. It helps to fund their programs. 300,000 kids in the Houston area don’t have their own bend and countless are literally sleeping on the floor. The Houston Furniture Bank helps to bring a little comfort and dignity to their lives. After expanding into Montgomery County, they are now serving Fort Bend County and we talk about the inception of that program. They also operate a matters recycling business that donates thousands of brand new mattresses every year. It also employs ex-convicts. It’s a successful program giving men worthy of a second chance their crucial fist job out of prison. Go to www.HoustonFurnitureBank.org and check out their Adopt a Family program!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Welcome to Houston, PA. Houston'sPublic Affairs show, an iHeart Media broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expressedon their show do not necessarily reflect
those held by this radio station,its management staff, for any of its
advertisers. My name is Laurent Iam the Texan from France and a proud
(00:28):
Houstonian. And my friend Ali Mohammed, the founder and executive director of the
Houston Furniture Bank, is back.Ali arrived in the United States of America.
I believe it was in the earlynights. It was right around the
time I got here, and hefound a need for furnishing the houses of
people who were either too poor becauseof how they'd fallen through the cracks,
(00:52):
or hadn't had the opportunities that Ihad, for instance, or because they
were refugees and had come to Houstonlook from for help, and the city
was sometimes able to provide them withhousing, but the housing was empty of
furniture, and so Ali decided tofound the Houston Furniture Bank, and they're
online at Houston Furniture Bank dot org. Houston Furniture Bank dot org. We'll
(01:18):
talk about there no kids on thefloor program, which is to me,
it feels like the flagship program ofthe Houston Furniture Bank. You probably don't
know this, but we count approximatelythree hundred thousand kids in the Houston area
who will sleep on the floor tonight. It's a daily reality. A lot
of those kids are also going togo to bed hungry, and one of
(01:42):
the things that we can do wecount on the Houston Food Bank, for
instance, to help us with themeals. But if you don't have any
furnishing, then your kids are goingto sleep on the floor because it's better
to have a roof than the sleepingoutdoors. And when I met Ali,
it was over a decade ago.He moved me very much by mentioning that
(02:02):
we should be able to provide thedignity of a bed and a pillow to
every kid in town, and actuallyto every family. And I've been following
their expansions and their growing programs,including the awesome mattress recycling program. For
a tiny fee, they will recycleyour mattress. Is just a fantastic program.
(02:24):
They also hire x cons people whoare coming out of a prison,
who have gone through some programs toallow them to prove that they're no longer
danger to society and that they're deservingof a second chance. And nobody will
hire these people. It's very difficultfor an x con to find a job
(02:44):
and allow the jobs that they getare hard jobs and recycling mattresses there's one
of those hard jobs. But bypaying their dues in this position, they're
able to step back up into society. It's just a wonderful organization. So
while will you listen to Ali talk, go to Houston Furniture Bank dot org.
They have a second hand furniture storethat's really really nice. It's like
(03:06):
a good Will of furniture, andwhen you buy furniture from them, you
help them keep the lights on,which allows their programs to be even more
successful. Ali, did you arrivein the early nineties. No, I
came to the United States in Houstonin nineteen eighty seven. Okay, so
just a few years before me.Four. Yeah, your your Texan self
(03:28):
is four years old. Actually knowbecause I was born Texan to a Texan
mom. So but yeah, wehave It's it's kind of interesting to me
that we have a sort of similarI guess our immigration story happens around the
same time in the same culture.Yes, and when I moved to the
States, I was shocked by someof the same things that you were shocked,
These things that are invisible in Americansociety when you look at Hollywood movies
(03:52):
and things like that. But tellus a little bit about this problem that
we're dealing with. As I mentionedthe we measured that about three hundred thousand
kids are going to sleep on thefloor tonight because there's no bed in their
house. They may not even havea dining room table. They might be
eating on the floor. It's very, very common. Yeah, it's it's
(04:13):
a hard reality. It's that that. I mean at least hundreds and at
least thousands and thousands of problem familiesgoing through every day. So you know,
it's it's but because it's not food, it's you. People normally don't
experience the fact of not having asofa, not having a bed, so
(04:35):
that's not really in your realm ofexperience. If you ask anybody when the
last time you didn't have a pillow, you will not find people around you.
I have an experience. I havea memory of going on a ski
trip with my school, so veryprivilege, right, and we were in
a dormitory but they ran out ofpillows before my bed got one, and
(04:57):
I slept without a pillow for liketwo or three days, and I have
a vivid memory of how uncomfortable itwas because you're so used to sleeping with
a pillow. So it helps merelate. Yeah, So so that relationship,
because that's nothing compared to the hardshipsyou're describing, not at all,
because it's not your fault, it'snot their fault. It's what life throughout
at people. Yeah, that's wherethat's where we We are here to take
(05:19):
care of things that we can.That's that's really what as human beings that
you can do. So so HoustonFurniture Bank is really about providing that minimum
amount of dignity as it quote unquotehuman being living in an affluent society where
(05:45):
while three hundred thousand children are strippingon the floor, about a million pieces
are going to the landfills, amillion mattresses, million matrices, seven hundred
and fifty thousand Maybe I read somethingabout that about a ten years ago,
seven hundred and fifty thousand estimated mattressesgoing to the area landfills. So now
(06:06):
the growth of this city, howmany and just by just by paying little
focused on that recyc Imagine last yearwe did forty eight thousand mattresses. Is
the number that we recycled, Soforty eight thousand times twenty three cubic feet
of landfill space that we have saved, so I mean and then provided so
(06:32):
but that that is only serving athousand children really, yeah, that is
only I mean along with our manufacturingof mattresses. Yeah, because you recycle
the mattresses, not all of it, not some of it that's that's qualified
to be refurbished, we res furbishedthem also, So somewhere between eight to
(06:55):
ten of the mattrices that is broughtin by for recycling can be refurbished.
So just refurbishing ten percent of mattrices, we can solve the problem of children
sleeping on the floor. You don'teven have to bake new matrices. It's
(07:15):
possible if the awareness is there,if people understood what they need to do
is these big corporations that are involvedinto landfills. You know, there are
big organizations like hotel companies for example, companies and like the recycling, big
recycling organizations, million dollars billion dollarcompanies. If they could pay attention to
(07:41):
this factor, Furniture Bank has amodel. There are ninety other furniture banks
around the country. Not everyone doesfurniture mats recycling, but there are other
furniture banks doing mattris recycling. Ibelieve that certainly not in Houston. There
is no need for a child togo to sleep on the floor. There
(08:03):
is really no need if you justpay attention to Yeah, so that's that's
the program of the Houston Furniture Bank. You can donate two hundred dollars for
a set of brand new mattress,foundation and box spring. These are brand
new, These are not refurbished,recycled. So and for it. For
(08:24):
two hundred dollars, for ten years, a child will have a comfortable place
to sleep. So you are practicallydoing twenty dollars a year for a child
to sleep on a comfortable bed.So when you take the read because this
is separate from the recycling program,right, you give out new furniture and
(08:45):
gently use furniture, but you're alsorecycling the mattresses and making new mattresses,
and then you're distributing those mattresses tofamilies. Yes for free. Yes,
that's that's extraordinary. Where do youget the money you need to pay all
these guys. We're struggling. We'restruggling continuously. I mean, it's been
an uphole struggle for all true.And that's why we came up with this
(09:09):
social business concept of using like thefurniture resales store that we have at eighty
two twenty Mosley Road, that isour mains mainstay of funding coming in when
we recycle mattress. There is alittle bit of money that comes in from
that. Also, if we canget more contracts to build more mattrices,
(09:33):
we can make more money to comein to give more mattrices out. So
this is the social business system programthat we're developing where we can manufacture mattrices
that is sold in a market priceand the profit one hundred percent of that
comes to run the furniture bank,and you can turn it around and put
(09:56):
it into your services and get morefurnitures and to more homes and need them
exactly. Recycle just keeps going andself feeding itself so to speak, so
to speak. In the process,people that are that are we call second
chance employment. They're coming yeah,and they're getting their record, getting the
first job, working here for afew years, moving on or the gentleman
(10:22):
who runs our who is the managerof our warehouse and recycling program. He's
a seventeeneer. He's a seventineer guestin the system, So I guess in
the system. Yeah, so that'swhat happened. Now now he's a proud
He can make more money going someoneelse with his qualities, but he's staying
at the furniture bank because he reallyloves it. It's a great program.
(10:46):
A lot of these guys and youknow they deserve a second chance. They've
made mistakes when they're very, veryyoung, and they you know they can
be performed. But the problem isthat as a condition of their parole,
they need to keep a job,and you're helping them do that for example.
Yeah, that that that's true.And then one of the things that
I have to say is that theseare one of the best employees that that
(11:07):
you can depend on. And youknow there is there is this human aspect
here that's really very important too.If you can impact one life, you've
done enough. Yeah. So ifyour listeners can look at this program and
look at how impactful it could be, Yeah, we need helphooded support.
(11:28):
Well, go to Houston Furniture Bankdot org. Houston Furniture Bank dot org.
You are listening to Houston, PAHouston's Public Affairs Show. My name
is Laurent. My guest is AliMohammad. He is the founder and executive
director of the Houston Furniture Bank.You've just started distributing furniture and Fort Bend.
(11:48):
Yes, so you're expanding your servicesand it's actually the second time you
expanding during the We are continuing toexpand our operations and services to the Montgomery
County. In fact, I wasat a lunch general before I came here
at the Montgomery County East Montgomery County, which is which is really growing and
(12:11):
they have a lot of families thatare in need, so there is a
lot of interest in that expansion inFood Bend County. I have to give
a shout out to Judge KP.George and Commissioner McCoy. They're really helping
the furniture bank. They want thisis I feel it that these two individuals
(12:37):
particularly really want a furniture bank operationin the Food Bend area and so they
understand the need we had been Wewere lucky to get funding also for through
our path with the help of thecounty to got got some funding to expand
our operation. So that is reallyvery exciting that that a George Foundation has
(13:01):
given us goodness help. So allthese all these good things that are happening,
very very exciting to understand and seethe public officials involvement. It's the
lack of political will that keeps usfrom fixing these problems. It's it's like
literacy. We mentioned that over aboutthree hundred thousand kids are going to sleep
(13:22):
on the floor tonight. You grabthe roles of the Houston Independent School District,
you take the third grade students,you randomly pick a hundred names out
of all the students, only thirtyof them, about thirty of them are
going to know how to read ata third grade level. That's that's our
literacy rate among children and hid inthird grade only thirty percent of this children.
(13:46):
And that thirty percent is a dramaticnumber that is being hoisted up by
the students with better opportunities. Ifyou look at the poorest students in our
country, in our county, thatliteracy rate drop, it's a calamity,
it's a catastrophe. And you speakof dignity and the problem with helping people
(14:07):
get into some decent furniture just toget them started, or this literacy problem.
It's not it's not a problem.We have the money, we have
the power because we have no knowledge, and we can we can make this
happen. You're doing it, You'reyou're living proof of it. But we
lack the political will. We justwe lack the awareness. Very often,
I think that we were constantly distractedby non constant, inconsequential subjects on TV,
(14:33):
and we're not talking about the factthat literally tens and tens and tens
of thousands of kids are going togo to sleep on the floor tonight hungry,
and we could easily do something aboutit. So you find these politicians
every once in a while they comein and say, hey, let's do
something good, and it's good totalk about that. You give us hope
all that. I am impressed withthat. I don't know whether it's it's
(14:54):
I'm not there are good people this. I'm impressed by the you know,
politicians normally would come there and whatI'd hear furniture Bank didn't have much of
political attention, but whatever, alittle bit, whatever I hear, they
come there for the photo. Ope. But my experience these two politicians they
(15:16):
were loading trucks. I mean thenthey were not doing that. Maybe there
was a mindset I do not.I didn't come across that way. It
was like a genuine giving their timeand helping people. With politicians and artists
and showbiz people, it's very easy. They tell you they're going to do
(15:37):
something, and if they do it, you can trust them. And mostly
though they won't do it and youshould therefore not trust them. And I
would suggest when it comes to politiciansand people like me in the media,
don't trust us unless we have givenyou reason to trust us. In other
words, wait for us to tellyou we're going to do something, observe
that we've done it, and thentrust us. But yeah, there are
(15:58):
good politicians. So so with allthat, basically we are practically looking for
a location. Any day we willsign a lease hopefully. I'm looking for
a looking for a space five toten thousand square fit to start our furniture
receiving and distribution operation in the FortBend County. So so this is really
(16:21):
great. I mean I think theyhave interest in starting the Matchess recycling program.
Yeah, if you're gonna need morespace for that graduate. Yeah,
and initially we'll just we'll just receivethings and transport it to our recycling center
in Bowling and Mosley. But butthen we will will expand our operation.
There is a lot of a lotof people if we can, if one
(16:45):
of your listeners is corrected to oneof those resources in Forodband, we need
it. We need all the resourcesthat we can because Ford Bend is a
very prosperous county. At the sametime, there are pockets of pockets of
poverty that that according to if you, if whoever you are, that poverty
will always be there. But theindicators of proverb poverty doesn't need to be
(17:08):
that you don't have a bed.Having a bed should be the baseline of
being a being poor. There shouldbe some base that the rest of us
should take care of while we're throwingthings away. So that's the overall I
think mindset for a for a communityin Houston is a great community of people.
(17:30):
I believe that people just doesn't knowif that's right. If you still
ask anybody who is resourceful. Werecently have a new board member. She's
really very well known name in Houstonsociety. He welcomes. We mentioned her
if you like, so if she'sFrancy Willis, Francy Willis and Barney.
(17:53):
So when when they asked their friends, yes, they were telling me.
When they asked their friends, youknow, on a ruse or a private
cruise or whatever they're going, noneof their friends know what furniture bank is.
Yeah, So people who can domake a difference by providing a little
bit of a resource don't know aboutthe furniture bank. But as if furniture
(18:17):
bank truck backs up in a ina apartment complex, everybody else is watching
who everybody is in need? Theyfind out that, yeah, they got
free furniture. How can I getit? So they start calling. Yeah,
so people that need knows about thefurniture bank. People that can make
a difference. So if you're listeningto this show and you're a Montgomery County
(18:41):
and you're thinking to yourself, Ihave five thousand, ten thousand square feet
that I can help with. Here, you can go to Houston Furniture Bank
dot org. You'll find their contactinformation there, or just send me an
email. I'll put you in contactwith Ali Texan from France at gmail dot
com. Texan from France at gmaildot com. Ali, you never know,
(19:02):
somebody might just email say hey,I might be able to help out,
and I'll send the email to you. I'll just Fordbend. I went
to a few events in Fordbend.I see fordband divity, engaged community.
So is Montgomery. Yeah, rightnow, because of this grant, we're
really focusing on Forbend. Dobon Goomeryis also our focus. But this grant
(19:22):
has given us some extra opportunity todo things that are otherwise we couldn't have
done. And obviously they're doing allthat while continuing their operations here and in
central Houston, so to speak.You are listening to Houston PA Houston's Public
Affairs Show. My name is Laurentand my guest is Ali Mohammed. He
is the founder and executive director ofthe Houston Furniture Bank. Their online at
(19:47):
Houston Furniture Bank dot org. HoustonFurniture Bank dot org. You know,
one of the ways that we cancontribute is by making our lives a little
bit easier by hiring the furniture Bankto do things for us. You have
the mattress recycling program. How doesthat work? I go on the website.
I have a mattress to recycle,I said an appointment, yes,
and they come and get it.There's a nominal fee because hey, it's
(20:11):
it's worth paying for. Uh,And that's it right. Yeah. Our
online system is really Sometimes you mighthave to make a phone call, but
all you have to do is togo online, either if the online is
working if it sometimes it doesn't,so make make a phone call. You
can immediately pick it up for avery small fee. What about my bed
(20:32):
it used to be, or myfoot on my couch it used to be
that we need all of that.We take any furniture that anybody can give
us. We also also we usedto do it for free, but we
cannot do that. We have torequest for a tax deductible donation of very
b Again, the other fee isalso tax deductable. How much is it.
(20:55):
It's sixty five dollars. Oh,my gosh, sixty five dollars.
Okay, listen, if you buy, if you buy, especially if you
buy high end furniture, they're goingto charge you two hundred and fifty three
hundred and fifty to take your furnitureout of the house. So you call
the furniture bank you give them sixtyfive dollars get a cut rate on getting
the furniture out of your house.It goes to good people. It's either
nice enough that they can sell inthe store, which will help you keep
(21:17):
the light on, so speak andhelp, or it'll be given out to
a family that needs a leg upshop with a purpose. Literally. I
like the convenience. I think thatyou found some way to raise awareness about
your organization by providing something that isvery useful to people. In other words,
they don't even need to care aboutthe issue. And that's good because
(21:40):
they may not know anything. Butat the same time, it's a tax
deductible fee, right, so youprobably give them a pamphlet which is information
about the Furniture Bank and all that. You spread the word and then the
neighbors, like you say, theneighbors see the truck pull up and it's
it's free apt We've been a lotof food calls because of the truck.
Yeah, having logos on the truckso so so the community involvement is really
(22:04):
really primed for the success because aswe move forward, as we as we
well, this is our thirty firstyear, so Furniture Bank really has has
created a model that's sustainable. Ithink we just need some seed money.
We just need few seeds here andthere. Like this furniture. We're calling
(22:29):
it Furniture Clinic. It's it's allthe broken furniture. There is two two
days of the week. We havea volunteer. He's starting is a very
good handyman. So he repairs furnituretwo days of the week. He comes
in and just volunteers for two days. He just fixed what you have in
your warehouse. Yes, and ifwe are trying to we're trying to increase
(22:49):
that. So if anybody, anybodywants to spend a few hours fixing some
pieces of furniture, yeah, itcould be given away rather than thrown into
the into the landfill. Uh.That is another help we need. You're
also taking vehicle donations too, right, Yes, so we have an online
program for that that that we geta get a few percentage. You get
(23:12):
to deduct the stuff from your taxes, by the way, so it helps
you a little bit. At theend of the year. I noticed something
really cool. If you go toHouston Furniture Bank dot org, you can
actually shop the store online. Yes, you can buy online. So this
is the second this is access tothe second hand store floor, for instance,
(23:33):
where they keep all the nice furniturethat they collect and to sell it
because it's it's still really nice.It's you might fix it if it needs
fixing. But I remember visiting yourstorehouse many years ago and there was a
lot of really nice stuff in there, like you got it. You didn't
need to fix it, just putit out beautiful. Yeah, unbelievable.
And the brand new furniture that youget, I have to give give you
(23:55):
a plug into. Yeah, AshleyFurniture that has donated I think eight hundred
brand new mattrices that we could distributefor free. Ashley Furniture. Ashley Furniture
has donated over eight hundred mattresses justrecently for us to be able to distribute
freely. And then Joe fran isa company out of Massachusetts that connected to
(24:19):
the Furniture Bank during during the floodHarvey. During Harvey and since then,
they never stopped donating to us,and they recently we are in the process
of receiving twelve trailer loads brand newfurniture. Wow, same thing, but
(24:41):
twelve trailer loads of them. Soit includes end tables that we're giving away
for free, brand new it's it'ssofa table with chairs we're selling and giving
away. So things like that arehappening every day. You know. So
furniture companies when they need to particularlybigger, put a bigger manufacturers. If
(25:04):
what I have heard, I donot know. I don't have a proof
for this. If they have orderedsomething like these products, it's little warped
in the top, so they couldn'tput it to any store, so they
need to get rid of it.They could either put it all in the
in the landfills. But furniture Bankis here. Yeah, so rather than
(25:25):
I have heard that Detroit in theocean, Oh, stop paying the taxes
and all the all that like theChinese did with all our plastic. Imagine
imagine this this is if if peoplethat are doing that in that scale.
Yeah, that's right, we're talkingabout scale under a problem is nothing.
This problem here in that scale isreally nothing. Instead of sending it to
(25:49):
the landfill, send it to anorganization like the Houston Furniture Bank. Yes,
who will make good use of allthis material. You have a program
that's called Adoptive Family. Let's let'sin with that because it feels like the
ultimate mark of optimism. I cango online and make a donation. By
the way, if you if you'venever donating in somebody's name, like you
(26:10):
know, in your dad's name oryour wife's name, as a Christmas gift
or as a birthday gift, youknow, Father's Day gift, it's a
really great gift. People are reallyimpressed. It raises awareness, but it's
just one of those things, especiallyif you're lucky enough like us, you
don't really need anything. You're justgonna get something and it's gonna sit on
the shelf. A donation to anorganization and the conversation it comes with it,
(26:30):
and it's just it's just a wonderfulway to give something to somebody else,
even though it's almost counterintuitive because you'renot really giving them anything. You're
giving them proof that you did something. But when you explain to them,
I was inspired to do this,dad, because you taught me how to
be this way. And here's thisorganization like the Furniture Bank that does all
(26:51):
this work, people really respond tothat. It's a great way to spread
the word, so adoptive family.You can go to Houston Furniture Bank dot
org. And just sign up familycost somewhow it can cost up to whatever
the need the family has. Soyou know, if if the family that
you want to adopt needs just tosofa and a chair, that's all they
(27:12):
needed, or if they needed thefull house full of furniture, so your
adoption level will change. So it'lldo they please get in touch with us
and now fill out that form andwell we'll get in touch with you and
see the best way to serve thefamily that we want to serve. The
If their families, they do aprogram called they surprise the family. Oh
(27:33):
wow this yeah, yeah, sothey don't tell them that they're bringing the
furniture. They come to the furniturebank gets so maybe they spend one thousand
dollars, bought everything that the familyneeded and have a surprise. Yeah.
So you know, can you cando a lot of different kinds of things.
If you get in touch with thefurniture bank, you can do you
(27:55):
can come shop if you want tocome. That place is a hidden gem,
Yeah, it is, it isreally. I mean I'm not not
because there's the Furniture Bank, butI've been there. I agree. You
get value. Yeah, if youwant to get value the something that that
is no, no family can useit. A table that is sold in
(28:17):
the arrangement one of the big shops, big good stuff. Yeah, so
those furniture that they were selling forthirteen thousand dollars, a bookcase basically a
tree basically inside the yeah tree,so inside the house. So so for
(28:37):
thirteen thousand dollars we sold it forhow much that's the Finally, that's a
great idea for the person who boughtit. Oh my god, the lake
house. Take it to his lakebecause it's a conversation piece. So we
get all that kind of donations andwe sell it for next to nothing.
(28:59):
So come to the Furniture Bank outletstore at eighty two twenty Mosley and shop
there. Adoptive family, donate yourmatters. Execular Mattris. And if you're
a listener in Fort Bend and youthink that you have a locale that the
Houston Furniture Bank could use, they'relooking for a place to operate their warehouse.
There's distribution center you mentioned five toten thousand square feet. Yes,
(29:22):
what you're looking for. So ifyou're in a Fort Bend you can and
you're like, hey, wait aminute, I might be able to help
these people that made make it reallyeasy for you. Texan from France at
gmail dot com. That's my emailaddress, Texan from France at gmail dot
com. I'll answer you directly andI'll put you into contact with Ali directly.
(29:42):
I'll make it very simple for youfor you to help if if it's
possible, just a quick shout outto make that happen. And folks,
I want to thank you for listeningand caring about the issues that put on
this show. I'll be here atthe same time next week. In the
meantime, I strongly encourage you togo see the Houston Furniture Bank secondhand or
visit their website Houston Furniture Bank dotorg Houston Furniture Bank dot org and spread
(30:07):
the word. That's what Houston PAis all about. My name is Laurent
I am the Texan from France andthis has been Houston PA, Houston's public
affairs show, Houston Strong
Welcome to Houston, PA. Houston'sPublic Affairs show, an iHeart Media broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expressedon their show do not necessarily reflect
those held by this radio station,its management staff, for any of its
advertisers. My name is Laurent Iam the Texan from France and a proud
(00:28):
Houstonian. And my friend Ali Mohammed, the founder and executive director of the
Houston Furniture Bank, is back.Ali arrived in the United States of America.
I believe it was in the earlynights. It was right around the
time I got here, and hefound a need for furnishing the houses of
people who were either too poor becauseof how they'd fallen through the cracks,
(00:52):
or hadn't had the opportunities that Ihad, for instance, or because they
were refugees and had come to Houstonlook from for help, and the city
was sometimes able to provide them withhousing, but the housing was empty of
furniture, and so Ali decided tofound the Houston Furniture Bank, and they're
online at Houston Furniture Bank dot org. Houston Furniture Bank dot org. We'll
(01:18):
talk about there no kids on thefloor program, which is to me,
it feels like the flagship program ofthe Houston Furniture Bank. You probably don't
know this, but we count approximatelythree hundred thousand kids in the Houston area
who will sleep on the floor tonight. It's a daily reality. A lot
of those kids are also going togo to bed hungry, and one of
(01:42):
the things that we can do wecount on the Houston Food Bank, for
instance, to help us with themeals. But if you don't have any
furnishing, then your kids are goingto sleep on the floor because it's better
to have a roof than the sleepingoutdoors. And when I met Ali,
it was over a decade ago.He moved me very much by mentioning that
(02:02):
we should be able to provide thedignity of a bed and a pillow to
every kid in town, and actuallyto every family. And I've been following
their expansions and their growing programs,including the awesome mattress recycling program. For
a tiny fee, they will recycleyour mattress. Is just a fantastic program.
(02:24):
They also hire x cons people whoare coming out of a prison,
who have gone through some programs toallow them to prove that they're no longer
danger to society and that they're deservingof a second chance. And nobody will
hire these people. It's very difficultfor an x con to find a job
(02:44):
and allow the jobs that they getare hard jobs and recycling mattresses there's one
of those hard jobs. But bypaying their dues in this position, they're
able to step back up into society. It's just a wonderful organization. So
while will you listen to Ali talk, go to Houston Furniture Bank dot org.
They have a second hand furniture storethat's really really nice. It's like
(03:06):
a good Will of furniture, andwhen you buy furniture from them, you
help them keep the lights on,which allows their programs to be even more
successful. Ali, did you arrivein the early nineties. No, I
came to the United States in Houstonin nineteen eighty seven. Okay, so
just a few years before me.Four. Yeah, your your Texan self
(03:28):
is four years old. Actually knowbecause I was born Texan to a Texan
mom. So but yeah, wehave It's it's kind of interesting to me
that we have a sort of similarI guess our immigration story happens around the
same time in the same culture.Yes, and when I moved to the
States, I was shocked by someof the same things that you were shocked,
These things that are invisible in Americansociety when you look at Hollywood movies
(03:52):
and things like that. But tellus a little bit about this problem that
we're dealing with. As I mentionedthe we measured that about three hundred thousand
kids are going to sleep on thefloor tonight because there's no bed in their
house. They may not even havea dining room table. They might be
eating on the floor. It's very, very common. Yeah, it's it's
(04:13):
a hard reality. It's that that. I mean at least hundreds and at
least thousands and thousands of problem familiesgoing through every day. So you know,
it's it's but because it's not food, it's you. People normally don't
experience the fact of not having asofa, not having a bed, so
(04:35):
that's not really in your realm ofexperience. If you ask anybody when the
last time you didn't have a pillow, you will not find people around you.
I have an experience. I havea memory of going on a ski
trip with my school, so veryprivilege, right, and we were in
a dormitory but they ran out ofpillows before my bed got one, and
(04:57):
I slept without a pillow for liketwo or three days, and I have
a vivid memory of how uncomfortable itwas because you're so used to sleeping with
a pillow. So it helps merelate. Yeah, So so that relationship,
because that's nothing compared to the hardshipsyou're describing, not at all,
because it's not your fault, it'snot their fault. It's what life throughout
at people. Yeah, that's wherethat's where we We are here to take
(05:19):
care of things that we can.That's that's really what as human beings that
you can do. So so HoustonFurniture Bank is really about providing that minimum
amount of dignity as it quote unquotehuman being living in an affluent society where
(05:45):
while three hundred thousand children are strippingon the floor, about a million pieces
are going to the landfills, amillion mattresses, million matrices, seven hundred
and fifty thousand Maybe I read somethingabout that about a ten years ago,
seven hundred and fifty thousand estimated mattressesgoing to the area landfills. So now
(06:06):
the growth of this city, howmany and just by just by paying little
focused on that recyc Imagine last yearwe did forty eight thousand mattresses. Is
the number that we recycled, Soforty eight thousand times twenty three cubic feet
of landfill space that we have saved, so I mean and then provided so
(06:32):
but that that is only serving athousand children really, yeah, that is
only I mean along with our manufacturingof mattresses. Yeah, because you recycle
the mattresses, not all of it, not some of it that's that's qualified
to be refurbished, we res furbishedthem also, So somewhere between eight to
(06:55):
ten of the mattrices that is broughtin by for recycling can be refurbished.
So just refurbishing ten percent of mattrices, we can solve the problem of children
sleeping on the floor. You don'teven have to bake new matrices. It's
(07:15):
possible if the awareness is there,if people understood what they need to do
is these big corporations that are involvedinto landfills. You know, there are
big organizations like hotel companies for example, companies and like the recycling, big
recycling organizations, million dollars billion dollarcompanies. If they could pay attention to
(07:41):
this factor, Furniture Bank has amodel. There are ninety other furniture banks
around the country. Not everyone doesfurniture mats recycling, but there are other
furniture banks doing mattris recycling. Ibelieve that certainly not in Houston. There
is no need for a child togo to sleep on the floor. There
(08:03):
is really no need if you justpay attention to Yeah, so that's that's
the program of the Houston Furniture Bank. You can donate two hundred dollars for
a set of brand new mattress,foundation and box spring. These are brand
new, These are not refurbished,recycled. So and for it. For
(08:24):
two hundred dollars, for ten years, a child will have a comfortable place
to sleep. So you are practicallydoing twenty dollars a year for a child
to sleep on a comfortable bed.So when you take the read because this
is separate from the recycling program,right, you give out new furniture and
(08:45):
gently use furniture, but you're alsorecycling the mattresses and making new mattresses,
and then you're distributing those mattresses tofamilies. Yes for free. Yes,
that's that's extraordinary. Where do youget the money you need to pay all
these guys. We're struggling. We'restruggling continuously. I mean, it's been
an uphole struggle for all true.And that's why we came up with this
(09:09):
social business concept of using like thefurniture resales store that we have at eighty
two twenty Mosley Road, that isour mains mainstay of funding coming in when
we recycle mattress. There is alittle bit of money that comes in from
that. Also, if we canget more contracts to build more mattrices,
(09:33):
we can make more money to comein to give more mattrices out. So
this is the social business system programthat we're developing where we can manufacture mattrices
that is sold in a market priceand the profit one hundred percent of that
comes to run the furniture bank,and you can turn it around and put
(09:56):
it into your services and get morefurnitures and to more homes and need them
exactly. Recycle just keeps going andself feeding itself so to speak, so
to speak. In the process,people that are that are we call second
chance employment. They're coming yeah,and they're getting their record, getting the
first job, working here for afew years, moving on or the gentleman
(10:22):
who runs our who is the managerof our warehouse and recycling program. He's
a seventeeneer. He's a seventineer guestin the system, So I guess in
the system. Yeah, so that'swhat happened. Now now he's a proud
He can make more money going someoneelse with his qualities, but he's staying
at the furniture bank because he reallyloves it. It's a great program.
(10:46):
A lot of these guys and youknow they deserve a second chance. They've
made mistakes when they're very, veryyoung, and they you know they can
be performed. But the problem isthat as a condition of their parole,
they need to keep a job,and you're helping them do that for example.
Yeah, that that that's true.And then one of the things that
I have to say is that theseare one of the best employees that that
(11:07):
you can depend on. And youknow there is there is this human aspect
here that's really very important too.If you can impact one life, you've
done enough. Yeah. So ifyour listeners can look at this program and
look at how impactful it could be, Yeah, we need helphooded support.
(11:28):
Well, go to Houston Furniture Bankdot org. Houston Furniture Bank dot org.
You are listening to Houston, PAHouston's Public Affairs Show. My name
is Laurent. My guest is AliMohammad. He is the founder and executive
director of the Houston Furniture Bank.You've just started distributing furniture and Fort Bend.
(11:48):
Yes, so you're expanding your servicesand it's actually the second time you
expanding during the We are continuing toexpand our operations and services to the Montgomery
County. In fact, I wasat a lunch general before I came here
at the Montgomery County East Montgomery County, which is which is really growing and
(12:11):
they have a lot of families thatare in need, so there is a
lot of interest in that expansion inFood Bend County. I have to give
a shout out to Judge KP.George and Commissioner McCoy. They're really helping
the furniture bank. They want thisis I feel it that these two individuals
(12:37):
particularly really want a furniture bank operationin the Food Bend area and so they
understand the need we had been Wewere lucky to get funding also for through
our path with the help of thecounty to got got some funding to expand
our operation. So that is reallyvery exciting that that a George Foundation has
(13:01):
given us goodness help. So allthese all these good things that are happening,
very very exciting to understand and seethe public officials involvement. It's the
lack of political will that keeps usfrom fixing these problems. It's it's like
literacy. We mentioned that over aboutthree hundred thousand kids are going to sleep
(13:22):
on the floor tonight. You grabthe roles of the Houston Independent School District,
you take the third grade students,you randomly pick a hundred names out
of all the students, only thirtyof them, about thirty of them are
going to know how to read ata third grade level. That's that's our
literacy rate among children and hid inthird grade only thirty percent of this children.
(13:46):
And that thirty percent is a dramaticnumber that is being hoisted up by
the students with better opportunities. Ifyou look at the poorest students in our
country, in our county, thatliteracy rate drop, it's a calamity,
it's a catastrophe. And you speakof dignity and the problem with helping people
(14:07):
get into some decent furniture just toget them started, or this literacy problem.
It's not it's not a problem.We have the money, we have
the power because we have no knowledge, and we can we can make this
happen. You're doing it, You'reyou're living proof of it. But we
lack the political will. We justwe lack the awareness. Very often,
I think that we were constantly distractedby non constant, inconsequential subjects on TV,
(14:33):
and we're not talking about the factthat literally tens and tens and tens
of thousands of kids are going togo to sleep on the floor tonight hungry,
and we could easily do something aboutit. So you find these politicians
every once in a while they comein and say, hey, let's do
something good, and it's good totalk about that. You give us hope
all that. I am impressed withthat. I don't know whether it's it's
(14:54):
I'm not there are good people this. I'm impressed by the you know,
politicians normally would come there and whatI'd hear furniture Bank didn't have much of
political attention, but whatever, alittle bit, whatever I hear, they
come there for the photo. Ope. But my experience these two politicians they
(15:16):
were loading trucks. I mean thenthey were not doing that. Maybe there
was a mindset I do not.I didn't come across that way. It
was like a genuine giving their timeand helping people. With politicians and artists
and showbiz people, it's very easy. They tell you they're going to do
(15:37):
something, and if they do it, you can trust them. And mostly
though they won't do it and youshould therefore not trust them. And I
would suggest when it comes to politiciansand people like me in the media,
don't trust us unless we have givenyou reason to trust us. In other
words, wait for us to tellyou we're going to do something, observe
that we've done it, and thentrust us. But yeah, there are
(15:58):
good politicians. So so with allthat, basically we are practically looking for
a location. Any day we willsign a lease hopefully. I'm looking for
a looking for a space five toten thousand square fit to start our furniture
receiving and distribution operation in the FortBend County. So so this is really
(16:21):
great. I mean I think theyhave interest in starting the Matchess recycling program.
Yeah, if you're gonna need morespace for that graduate. Yeah,
and initially we'll just we'll just receivethings and transport it to our recycling center
in Bowling and Mosley. But butthen we will will expand our operation.
There is a lot of a lotof people if we can, if one
(16:45):
of your listeners is corrected to oneof those resources in Forodband, we need
it. We need all the resourcesthat we can because Ford Bend is a
very prosperous county. At the sametime, there are pockets of pockets of
poverty that that according to if you, if whoever you are, that poverty
will always be there. But theindicators of proverb poverty doesn't need to be
(17:08):
that you don't have a bed.Having a bed should be the baseline of
being a being poor. There shouldbe some base that the rest of us
should take care of while we're throwingthings away. So that's the overall I
think mindset for a for a communityin Houston is a great community of people.
(17:30):
I believe that people just doesn't knowif that's right. If you still
ask anybody who is resourceful. Werecently have a new board member. She's
really very well known name in Houstonsociety. He welcomes. We mentioned her
if you like, so if she'sFrancy Willis, Francy Willis and Barney.
(17:53):
So when when they asked their friends, yes, they were telling me.
When they asked their friends, youknow, on a ruse or a private
cruise or whatever they're going, noneof their friends know what furniture bank is.
Yeah, So people who can domake a difference by providing a little
bit of a resource don't know aboutthe furniture bank. But as if furniture
(18:17):
bank truck backs up in a ina apartment complex, everybody else is watching
who everybody is in need? Theyfind out that, yeah, they got
free furniture. How can I getit? So they start calling. Yeah,
so people that need knows about thefurniture bank. People that can make
a difference. So if you're listeningto this show and you're a Montgomery County
(18:41):
and you're thinking to yourself, Ihave five thousand, ten thousand square feet
that I can help with. Here, you can go to Houston Furniture Bank
dot org. You'll find their contactinformation there, or just send me an
email. I'll put you in contactwith Ali Texan from France at gmail dot
com. Texan from France at gmaildot com. Ali, you never know,
(19:02):
somebody might just email say hey,I might be able to help out,
and I'll send the email to you. I'll just Fordbend. I went
to a few events in Fordbend.I see fordband divity, engaged community.
So is Montgomery. Yeah, rightnow, because of this grant, we're
really focusing on Forbend. Dobon Goomeryis also our focus. But this grant
(19:22):
has given us some extra opportunity todo things that are otherwise we couldn't have
done. And obviously they're doing allthat while continuing their operations here and in
central Houston, so to speak.You are listening to Houston PA Houston's Public
Affairs Show. My name is Laurentand my guest is Ali Mohammed. He
is the founder and executive director ofthe Houston Furniture Bank. Their online at
(19:47):
Houston Furniture Bank dot org. HoustonFurniture Bank dot org. You know,
one of the ways that we cancontribute is by making our lives a little
bit easier by hiring the furniture Bankto do things for us. You have
the mattress recycling program. How doesthat work? I go on the website.
I have a mattress to recycle,I said an appointment, yes,
and they come and get it.There's a nominal fee because hey, it's
(20:11):
it's worth paying for. Uh,And that's it right. Yeah. Our
online system is really Sometimes you mighthave to make a phone call, but
all you have to do is togo online, either if the online is
working if it sometimes it doesn't,so make make a phone call. You
can immediately pick it up for avery small fee. What about my bed
(20:32):
it used to be, or myfoot on my couch it used to be
that we need all of that.We take any furniture that anybody can give
us. We also also we usedto do it for free, but we
cannot do that. We have torequest for a tax deductible donation of very
b Again, the other fee isalso tax deductable. How much is it.
(20:55):
It's sixty five dollars. Oh,my gosh, sixty five dollars.
Okay, listen, if you buy, if you buy, especially if you
buy high end furniture, they're goingto charge you two hundred and fifty three
hundred and fifty to take your furnitureout of the house. So you call
the furniture bank you give them sixtyfive dollars get a cut rate on getting
the furniture out of your house.It goes to good people. It's either
nice enough that they can sell inthe store, which will help you keep
(21:17):
the light on, so speak andhelp, or it'll be given out to
a family that needs a leg upshop with a purpose. Literally. I
like the convenience. I think thatyou found some way to raise awareness about
your organization by providing something that isvery useful to people. In other words,
they don't even need to care aboutthe issue. And that's good because
(21:40):
they may not know anything. Butat the same time, it's a tax
deductible fee, right, so youprobably give them a pamphlet which is information
about the Furniture Bank and all that. You spread the word and then the
neighbors, like you say, theneighbors see the truck pull up and it's
it's free apt We've been a lotof food calls because of the truck.
Yeah, having logos on the truckso so so the community involvement is really
(22:04):
really primed for the success because aswe move forward, as we as we
well, this is our thirty firstyear, so Furniture Bank really has has
created a model that's sustainable. Ithink we just need some seed money.
We just need few seeds here andthere. Like this furniture. We're calling
(22:29):
it Furniture Clinic. It's it's allthe broken furniture. There is two two
days of the week. We havea volunteer. He's starting is a very
good handyman. So he repairs furnituretwo days of the week. He comes
in and just volunteers for two days. He just fixed what you have in
your warehouse. Yes, and ifwe are trying to we're trying to increase
(22:49):
that. So if anybody, anybodywants to spend a few hours fixing some
pieces of furniture, yeah, itcould be given away rather than thrown into
the into the landfill. Uh.That is another help we need. You're
also taking vehicle donations too, right, Yes, so we have an online
program for that that that we geta get a few percentage. You get
(23:12):
to deduct the stuff from your taxes, by the way, so it helps
you a little bit. At theend of the year. I noticed something
really cool. If you go toHouston Furniture Bank dot org, you can
actually shop the store online. Yes, you can buy online. So this
is the second this is access tothe second hand store floor, for instance,
(23:33):
where they keep all the nice furniturethat they collect and to sell it
because it's it's still really nice.It's you might fix it if it needs
fixing. But I remember visiting yourstorehouse many years ago and there was a
lot of really nice stuff in there, like you got it. You didn't
need to fix it, just putit out beautiful. Yeah, unbelievable.
And the brand new furniture that youget, I have to give give you
(23:55):
a plug into. Yeah, AshleyFurniture that has donated I think eight hundred
brand new mattrices that we could distributefor free. Ashley Furniture. Ashley Furniture
has donated over eight hundred mattresses justrecently for us to be able to distribute
freely. And then Joe fran isa company out of Massachusetts that connected to
(24:19):
the Furniture Bank during during the floodHarvey. During Harvey and since then,
they never stopped donating to us,and they recently we are in the process
of receiving twelve trailer loads brand newfurniture. Wow, same thing, but
(24:41):
twelve trailer loads of them. Soit includes end tables that we're giving away
for free, brand new it's it'ssofa table with chairs we're selling and giving
away. So things like that arehappening every day. You know. So
furniture companies when they need to particularlybigger, put a bigger manufacturers. If
(25:04):
what I have heard, I donot know. I don't have a proof
for this. If they have orderedsomething like these products, it's little warped
in the top, so they couldn'tput it to any store, so they
need to get rid of it.They could either put it all in the
in the landfills. But furniture Bankis here. Yeah, so rather than
(25:25):
I have heard that Detroit in theocean, Oh, stop paying the taxes
and all the all that like theChinese did with all our plastic. Imagine
imagine this this is if if peoplethat are doing that in that scale.
Yeah, that's right, we're talkingabout scale under a problem is nothing.
This problem here in that scale isreally nothing. Instead of sending it to
(25:49):
the landfill, send it to anorganization like the Houston Furniture Bank. Yes,
who will make good use of allthis material. You have a program
that's called Adoptive Family. Let's let'sin with that because it feels like the
ultimate mark of optimism. I cango online and make a donation. By
the way, if you if you'venever donating in somebody's name, like you
(26:10):
know, in your dad's name oryour wife's name, as a Christmas gift
or as a birthday gift, youknow, Father's Day gift, it's a
really great gift. People are reallyimpressed. It raises awareness, but it's
just one of those things, especiallyif you're lucky enough like us, you
don't really need anything. You're justgonna get something and it's gonna sit on
the shelf. A donation to anorganization and the conversation it comes with it,
(26:30):
and it's just it's just a wonderfulway to give something to somebody else,
even though it's almost counterintuitive because you'renot really giving them anything. You're
giving them proof that you did something. But when you explain to them,
I was inspired to do this,dad, because you taught me how to
be this way. And here's thisorganization like the Furniture Bank that does all
(26:51):
this work, people really respond tothat. It's a great way to spread
the word, so adoptive family.You can go to Houston Furniture Bank dot
org. And just sign up familycost somewhow it can cost up to whatever
the need the family has. Soyou know, if if the family that
you want to adopt needs just tosofa and a chair, that's all they
(27:12):
needed, or if they needed thefull house full of furniture, so your
adoption level will change. So it'lldo they please get in touch with us
and now fill out that form andwell we'll get in touch with you and
see the best way to serve thefamily that we want to serve. The
If their families, they do aprogram called they surprise the family. Oh
(27:33):
wow this yeah, yeah, sothey don't tell them that they're bringing the
furniture. They come to the furniturebank gets so maybe they spend one thousand
dollars, bought everything that the familyneeded and have a surprise. Yeah.
So you know, can you cando a lot of different kinds of things.
If you get in touch with thefurniture bank, you can do you
(27:55):
can come shop if you want tocome. That place is a hidden gem,
Yeah, it is, it isreally. I mean I'm not not
because there's the Furniture Bank, butI've been there. I agree. You
get value. Yeah, if youwant to get value the something that that
is no, no family can useit. A table that is sold in
(28:17):
the arrangement one of the big shops, big good stuff. Yeah, so
those furniture that they were selling forthirteen thousand dollars, a bookcase basically a
tree basically inside the yeah tree,so inside the house. So so for
(28:37):
thirteen thousand dollars we sold it forhow much that's the Finally, that's a
great idea for the person who boughtit. Oh my god, the lake
house. Take it to his lakebecause it's a conversation piece. So we
get all that kind of donations andwe sell it for next to nothing.
(28:59):
So come to the Furniture Bank outletstore at eighty two twenty Mosley and shop
there. Adoptive family, donate yourmatters. Execular Mattris. And if you're
a listener in Fort Bend and youthink that you have a locale that the
Houston Furniture Bank could use, they'relooking for a place to operate their warehouse.
There's distribution center you mentioned five toten thousand square feet. Yes,
(29:22):
what you're looking for. So ifyou're in a Fort Bend you can and
you're like, hey, wait aminute, I might be able to help
these people that made make it reallyeasy for you. Texan from France at
gmail dot com. That's my emailaddress, Texan from France at gmail dot
com. I'll answer you directly andI'll put you into contact with Ali directly.
(29:42):
I'll make it very simple for youfor you to help if if it's
possible, just a quick shout outto make that happen. And folks,
I want to thank you for listeningand caring about the issues that put on
this show. I'll be here atthe same time next week. In the
meantime, I strongly encourage you togo see the Houston Furniture Bank secondhand or
visit their website Houston Furniture Bank dotorg Houston Furniture Bank dot org and spread
(30:07):
the word. That's what Houston PAis all about. My name is Laurent
I am the Texan from France andthis has been Houston PA, Houston's public
affairs show, Houston Strong
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!