The Houston Furniture Bank’s mission is to furnish hope by providing families with residential furniture and furnishings to improve sleep, mealtime, and home comforts to promote a happy and healthy lifestyle. The organization has served the Houston community since 1992 and seeks to make empty houses homes. While many area nonprofits and state agencies work to ensure housing needs are met for community members, the Houston Furniture Bank is the only nonprofit that furnishes homes – ensuring families have dinner tables to share a meal around and children have beds to sleep in each night. In its long history, Houston Furniture Bank has served over 100,000 individuals and 36,000 families.
Hal Lynde has worked with Houston Furniture Bank since its inception in 1992. He served as a founding board member and then re-joined the Board of Directors in 2004, serving as Chairman since 2006. Throughout his years of service, he has provided steady, unwavering leadership through a host of uncertainties: the 2008 financial depression, a fire that destroyed the facility in 2015, the destruction and aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and, most recently, the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Through all of these challenges, Houston Furniture Bank has continued its steady growth, much of which can be contributed to Hal’s vision to create a sustainable nonprofit. Under his leadership, the organization launched multiple “social businesses” including Mattress Recycling & Refurbishment Center, Mattress Builders, and Outlet Center. Thanks to Hal’s forward thinking, the organization generates funding for more than 50% of its $2.4 million annual budget – a remarkable operational accomplishment amongst nonprofit organizations. In 2019, Hal oversaw the launch of Houston Furniture Bank’s ‘No Kids on the Floor’ initiative. A resounding success, the program has provided mattresses to over 1,000 children in its first year.