Formerly Homeless Family Reacts to Newly Furnished Home

Video of a formerly homeless, single mother from Detroit had a viscerally emotional reaction to her family’s newly furnished apartment.

Tiffany Clarke and her two children lost their home nearly two years ago, and spent the ensuing time living anywhere they could, including homeless shelters and cars. The family was finally able to get a roof over their head thanks to subsidized housing, but still couldn’t afford furniture of any kind.

The family huddled in the empty home until Humble Design, a Detroit-based volunteer organization, stepped in. Begun in 2009, the group uses donations from local residents to help furnish the homes of families coming out of homelessness.

Treger Strasberg, who founded Humble Design, said, “I am addicted to that moment when the family comes home and sees that furniture for the first time and everything changes. Sometimes their chin goes down and sometimes the tears come out right away, but we all hug and we all cry because we all know that tomorrow is going to be better.”

Strasberg went on, “It’s a lot of love, a lot of kindness, dignity and respect that’s offered to families that haven’t had a lot of kindness and dignity and respect in the last year.”

According to Strasberg, Humble Design has furnished more than 660 homes.

For her part, Clarke was simply overjoyed about the job Strasberg’s team did on her family’s home.

“Oh my god! This is pretty, this is so beautiful. I wasn’t even expecting anything this pretty,” said Clarke.