Canada’s expecting 76,000 refugees in 2023. Meet the woman furnishing hundreds of their homes for free

At a recent Ottawa Redblacks football game, the team presented Suzi Shore Sauve with their "Wood Cookie" award. The distinction is given out at each home game to a community member making a difference; on this day, they honoured Shore Sauve for her multifaith volunteer initiative, From House to Home Ottawa.

It all started two summers ago, after her father, David Shore, died. To honour him, she came up with a charity project—she would collect gently used furniture from people who wanted to get rid of it, then donate it to refugees who recently found houses but couldn't afford to furnish them.

At first, she paid for this service entirely out of her own pocket, storing everything in her garage. But today, her charity stores all their donations in a giant warehouse, and Shore Sauve has hired staff to handle pick-ups and deliveries. To date, From House to Home Ottawa has helped 250 families, including 14 families in three days in just the last week. Shore Sauve joins to discuss her project and how they're planning to help some of the quarter-million refugees expected to arrive in Canada by 2026.

What we talked about:

• Read about From House to Home in The CJN archives (2021)
• Learn about the charity at house2homeottawa.ca
• Learn about Rise Up Ottawa

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.