Fourteen years after San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries opened its innovative Furniture for a Cause on Blanco Rd, which allowed homeless individuals to learn a useful trade by refurbishing and selling donated furniture, SAMM said today it is closing the store, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
CEO Navarra Williams says the way people deal with used furniture has changed a lot over the years."There are a lot of web sites now where people are basically advertising their old furniture for sale for $100 or $50," he said. "Items which probably would have been donated in the past."
He says one year after Furniture for a Cause opened, Hurricane Katrina also changed the giving patterns of Americans.
"Folks started donating items to places where there was heavy damage, that sort of thing," he said. "That also happened here with Harvey."
He says the closing was prompted by the expiration of SAMM's lease. He says all of SAMM's operations will move to a new location at Loop 410 and Jackson-Keller.
He says the furniture store will offer a major going out of business sale, with items up to 70% off, with proceeds to benefit SAMM ministries.
San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries was founded 35 years ago, when Rev. Louis Zbinden, the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church north of downtown, saw a homeless person who had died on church property.
Rev. Zbinden then joined with other local churches to form SAMM, to benefit the homeless.