We are pleased to announce that Hearts to Homes has provided over $1 million dollars in furnishing assistance to over 450 young adults who have aged out of foster care in New York City, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Nassau, and Suffolk counties. The average cost to furnish an apartment and provide essential home furnishings for a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom is $2,400. Hearts to Homes’ support has followed young New Yorkers, who have chosen to relocate, to Texas, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Connecticut as well as several counties in upstate New York.
Begun as a program of Cardinal McCloskey Community Services, Hearts to Homes provided furnishings for six young adults in 2016. By November 2017, Hearts to Homes had separately incorporated to facilitate expansion of our services to qualified youth at additional foster care agencies.
Since then, Hearts to Homes has expanded our referral program from a single agency to twenty-six referring partners – all of which are either foster care agencies or organizations whose missions are to support foster youth. Today, Hearts to Homes continues to expand services and referral criteria so that more and more young adults in need will be able to avail themselves of this critical support. In 2023, Hearts to Homes expects to furnish 140 apartments for young adults in need.
Our mission is focused on assisting youth at a critical moment in their lives – when they move from foster care to their first, independent apartment. Statistics show that Hearts to Homes’ support is one of the factors that reduces the chance of homelessness, incarceration or inter-generational foster care, instead resulting in more young people remaining stable in their first homes.
Hearts to Homes is indebted to the many donors who have made this possible and to our volunteers and referring partners who work with us each week to make a difference in the lives of these young people!