“ Everyone is welcoming and friendly and we’re all working together to help others.”

Matthew House Ottawa was thrilled to welcome our colleagues from Toronto’s Furniture Bank for a visit earlier this month. Founded in 1998, they work to end furniture poverty – one family at a time.

“For a refugee, if they aren’t at Matthew House, they are probably in a homeless shelter and that’s just not right.”

Matthew House Ottawa (MHO) has been selected to receive $62,100 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s (OTF) Resilient Communities Fund this year in support of improving its capacity to increase and access new sources of revenue.

“Having a home, regardless of how modest, means everything. I’ve been blessed all my life, and I believe it’s important to address my blessings by giving.”

“It’s only when a client has a furnished home that the family can start thinking beyond surviving and look toward thriving.” Read Abdul's story.

Matthew House Ottawa’s Executive Director Allan Reesor-McDowell was recognized by the Ottawa Business Journal as being one of the city's 40 Under 40 in 2021.

“ Everyone is welcoming and friendly and we’re all working together to help others.”

“The Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN) is pleased to announce that Matthew House Ottawa, a furniture bank and refugee services charity, has become a certified living wage employer, with all employees earning at least $18.42 per hour.”

Matthew House Ottawa: Furniture Bank was highlighted on CTV News at 6pm, January 11, 2021.

It’s people just like you who give newcomers the comfort and support of a fresh start at Matthew House.

Matthew House Ottawa provides services to refugee claimants, offering them a temporary place to live in Ottawa, Ontario, and access to an established support network as they start their new life in Canada.

What might just look like a table and chairs to unsuspecting eyes can mean everything for a family in need.

Matthew House Ottawa: Welcome Home was selected as one of Canada’s Top 100 Recovery Projects: local projects that help communities not just return to normal — but Build Back Better for a thriving decade. Check out all 100 projects highlighted by Future of Good here http://100recoveryprojects.futureofgood.co/

“It was an amazing thing that we were given.”

“Seeing the satisfaction from the families when they received their furniture and the impact it made on their lives affected me in such a profound manner that I put my original plans aside to dedicate myself at the furniture bank.”

“This is perhaps the most important outcome of our work: that the people we serve are themselves answering a call to serve others, to help those in need, to build community, to offer hope—a virtuous cycle that will continue to transform our community and country for the better.”

An update, and ways that you can help Matthew House Ottawa and the people we serve.

“We moved and everything seemed to go wrong at once. We ran out of money. We couldn’t afford to pay rent. My wife got sick. We didn’t have enough money to pay our bills… We were desperate.”

“When we moved into our apartment we had nothing. Now, we can sit on the couch together, eat meals at the kitchen table, and sleep in our beds.”