WTH’s Story
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Learn about the history and mission of Welcome to Housing
Welcome to Housing Home Goods Bank, Inc. (WTH) is a nonprofit furniture bank that provides essential items to people transitioning from shelters to permanent residencies across Maine. In 2011, Volunteer Founder and Co-Chair Chris Olsen built the organization from the ground up with a group of enthusiastic volunteers.
The local community donates all basic household products, furniture and adaptive equipment. WTH occasionally uses funds raised to purchase items that are hard to get donated or for liability reasons (must be new and unused), such as child car safety seats.
Olsen has been involved in volunteerism since he was young, starting with change collections for UNICEF at Halloween. After more than 15 years in nonprofit management and earning his real estate license, Olsen decided to get back into nonprofit work and established the all-volunteer organization.
“One of the reasons behind it being all-volunteer and why I like it that way too is that we can be creative and we can adjust the way we need to. There is not a lot of formality and hierarchy. If something works, we use it. If it doesn’t work, we move on.” said Olsen. “As an all-volunteer organization, you can really find people who are in it for the right reason, and that is because we are trying to help people.”
Strength through sharing: The growing value of free exchanges
Battery-powered mowers and hedge trimmers at the new South Portland Electric Tool Library (SPETL) are checked out almost as soon as they’re returned. Demand is high among local residents for fume-free and relatively quiet yard equipment that lowers carbon emissions.
The SPETL grew out of One Climate Future, a planning document jointly prepared by the Cities of South Portland and Portland to foster climate resilience and cut carbon pollution. One way to realize those goals is by sharing resources, tools and services — eliminating, in the plan’s words, “the precedent that every individual or household must own their own items.” Using the public library model, the SPETL offers free access to yard appliances that are literally checked out using library cards.
A $16,000 solid waste diversion grant from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection funded the SPETL which is among Maine’s first equipment libraries (others include a membership-based tool lending library run by a Portland nonprofit, and a shared-use program for farm equipment administered by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association). The SPETL has already sparked inquiries from several communities interested in replicating its electric tool-sharing model.