Volunteers, IKEA furnish Family Promise transitional home on Maine Street

A bare transitional unit on Maine Street was turned into a ready-made home, thanks to volunteer labor and a full furniture donation from IKEA Merriam. The three-bedroom house now has the basics a family needs to walk in and start living, including beds, seating, plates, silverware and even stuffed animals in the children’s rooms.

Brenda Wahl, executive director of Family Promise of Lawrence, said the project showed what happens when local hands and outside support come together. She said this was the second time IKEA had worked with the nonprofit, after furnishing one of Family Promise’s apartments on Tennessee Street. Wahl said families often lease the nonprofit’s transitional spaces for one to two years while they build savings or work toward goals such as earning a GED or a college degree.

The difference on Maine Street was visible in the details. Instead of an empty stopgap, the unit was finished as a place where a family can settle in with some stability during a difficult stretch. That matters in transitional housing, where the goal is not just shelter, but a home-like setting that can lower stress and make daily routines possible while parents work toward longer-term housing.

Family Promise of Lawrence has served the community since 2008 and estimates it has provided more than 36,000 nights of shelter to more than 1,700 families in the Lawrence area. Its new facility at 200 Mount Hope Court is designed to house up to six homeless families, or as many as 24 guests including staff, a shift meant to reduce the need for families to move from church to church each week, as they did for 15 years. The nonprofit also operates supportive housing through two leased homes that allow two families to stay with more independence while still receiving case management.

The need remains plain in local data. The City of Lawrence’s preliminary 2025 point-in-time count reported 184 people in sheltered homelessness in Douglas County and 43 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Lawrence. The city said the final U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development count would include people sheltered at places such as Family Promise, Bert Nash and Willow Domestic Violence Center.

IKEA said its partnership with Family Promise has stretched across more than 18 U.S. markets over the last four years, combining furniture donations, co-worker support and home-furnishing expertise. In Lawrence, the Maine Street makeover showed how donated goods, volunteer labor and sustained community support can change the experience of housing insecurity one family at a time.