By Derek Herscovici ’14 

She walks through aisles piled with furniture, looking for the one piece that will tie the room together. Couches, kitchen tables, beds—they symbolize more than just a kitchen or a living room. They are a new beginning. A second chance. For people escaping poverty and homelessness, they are pieces of a life only dreamt of.

Ruth Ann Stewart Logue ’87 wants everything to look just right when the new owner sees it for the first time. Her nonprofit House N2 Home has furnished hundreds of residences for Michigan’s formerly homeless, helping to make a life of limited means a little easier.

“I loved it from the beginning, that’s the truth,” said Logue, the founder and volunteer CEO of House N2 Home. “I’ve learned so much about what it means to live in poverty and how for so many of our clients, there was just a tipping point—a death in the family, a severe illness, being kicked out of the house for being gay. Our clients do not have safety nets. When I realized we could provide one so they could work on the things they need to be stable, I was completely hooked.”

In 2017, she was browsing the listings of the “Freecycle Network™,” an online newsletter where people give away reusable goods. She often ignored the daily emails, but an entry that day stood out. “Single mother of three. I need everything.” The former maternity nurse and mother of six felt compelled to learn more.

Domestic violence had forced the woman and her children from one home. A family tragedy had forced them from another. With nothing left and nowhere to go, she turned to the community for help.

Logue contacted the woman and helped her get into one of Ann Arbor’s many homeless shelters, then found a landlord who would rent to her. But she didn’t stop there.

“I gathered a group of friends around this and said, ‘This woman is moving out of the shelter. She had been homeless as a young person, remembered coming out of a shelter and never having furniture, so [her house] never felt like home.’ I was determined that this was going to be a different story for her and for her children. I want her kids to come home to beds and furniture—I want them to ‘come home’ to a home.”

It’s a labor of love.

Logue and her friends found furniture for the house, stocked the fridge, prepared dinner and threw a welcome party for the grateful family. Job well done. End of story. Ten months later, the aforementioned landlord called to say he was renting to two more single moms leaving a shelter. Could she help them too?

The requests kept coming. In 2019 they organized as House N2 Home and since then have furnished more than 800 units for families and individuals, including almost 300 in 2022 alone. The Ann Arbor community has taken notice.

All of House N2 Home’s furniture is acquired through donations from University of Michigan students and the surrounding community, saving untold tons from the landfill. It’s stored in a 20,000-square-foot wing of Trinity Health-Saint Joseph’s Hospital for just $2 a year—a critical boost for a nonprofit that generates no income but plenty of expenses.

Moving the furniture alone costs about $500 a home, but then there are specific expenses—like the $25 zippered casements for gently used mattresses—that add up over time. After donating 500 beds in 2022, that worked out to $12,500.

Logue or a member of the House N2 Home team meets with new clients who are transitioning out of homelessness after they’re referred by a case worker. Once long-term housing is secured, Logue interviews them to determine both “needs” and “wants.” Many have never been asked for input on their new homes, and they don’t forget it.

One client said he preferred the colors blue and white, that they made him feel more restful. When he saw the white sofa with blue pillows and a blue ottoman in his home, he gratefully told her, “you heard me.”

Logue credits her past as a nurse for how she works with clients now.

“Nursing prepares you for so many things—you have to multitask, to solve problems—and you have to care. You can’t just go into it for the science of it, you have to care about people,” said Logue. “Nurses don’t get rattled by health-related issues, either.”

It’s a labor of love—the 50,000-plus service hours from more than 100 volunteers are a testament to that. But when the client steps into their newly furnished home for the first time, it’s overwhelming. For everyone.

“You really feel like you’re living in service to someone else, and I think that’s honestly one of the healthiest things we can do as people,” said Logue. “It’s been really life changing to see that, and especially for them too. I’m not sure whose life has been changed more.”