In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow released a paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation.”
In it, he detailed a set of five basic needs that, when met, allow people to function at their highest level: physical survival, physical safety, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
In the decades since, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has served as a powerful tool in healthcare, counseling, and social work. It maintains that once people are given food, water, clothing, and shelter, there’s still quite a lot of work to do in making sure that they feel safe, loved, and respected, too.
“There's a correlation between the amount of support somebody gets and their ability to stay housed,” said Baron King of the CHATT Foundation, a social services organization in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In his podcast, Give Me Shelter, King used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to debunk common myths surrounding homelessness.
“The second level is safety,” he said. “The need for security, stability, and freedom from threats. That includes bodily safety, financial security, and a stable home environment.”
“The third level, moving up the diagram, is love and belonging. We are social beings. We need connection. We need community. Without that, we suffer.”
Across the country, nonprofits are aiming to meet the first three levels of that pyramid, which centers not just on the idea of housing, but housing with dignity.
Since 2015, Georgie Smith and her wife Melissa Goddard have been helping former foster youth find housing — and fully furnish each home.
“A roof over their head is not enough,” Smith told the Imprint.
Their nonprofit, A Sense of Home, started its work over a decade ago, when Smith and Goddard were volunteering with foster youth in Los Angeles and befriended a young man named Barry. After he qualified for an apartment with a Section 8 housing voucher, Barry asked the couple if they could help him move the few belongings he had.
“I saw him living on the floor,” Smith said, noting that Barry didn’t have a bed, fridge, or stove. “I was just like, ‘No, this can’t be.’”
That’s when Smith and Goddard turned to social media, asking for local donations in the form of bedroom furniture, chairs, tables, kitchen supplies, and even art. Overnight, Barry’s apartment transformed into an actual home. His friends from foster care were impressed.
“All of his friends that were coming out of transitional facilities, aging out, reached out to me for help, thinking that this was a service that existed, and it didn’t,” Smith said.
So, she and her wife created one. Since then, A Sense of Home has created 1,500 homes for youth formerly in foster care — many of whom were on the verge of homelessness.
One such person is Regina Brodell, a doctoral student at the University of Southern California. Growing up, her father was frequently hospitalized for cancer treatments, and she and her siblings were often separated from each other.
“When you’re in the system like I was, I got so good at knowing, like, this is not a home, this is not a welcoming space,’’ Brodell said. “You just learn to survive in it, but your compass gets really calibrated to know that’s not home.”
In 2023, A Sense of Home helped Brodell move into an apartment that was designed just for her.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever said, ‘OK, Regina, you can breathe,’” she said. “You can let your soul catch up with itself in this space. And this is where you can be creative and you can heal.”
Another nonprofit providing healing spaces to people in need is Benevolence Farm. In November, they opened North Carolina's first tiny home community for formerly incarcerated women.
“These tiny homes will provide a strong foundation for formerly incarcerated women to begin their reentry journeys, to get back on their feet and to get the resources they need for success,” Anna Harris Stein, a public health official and the First Lady of North Carolina, said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Many of the people who work for the nonprofit are formerly incarcerated themselves, helping ensure each home was built with trauma-informed design in mind.
“We said no loft with beds, because it reminded us of bunks and jails and prisons,” Mona Evans, the nonprofit’s community advocacy director, told WUNC. “We didn't want to climb up ladders.”
Each home comes outfitted with a full bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, washer, dryer, and living area.
“These individual spaces mean we no longer will be sharing showers with 23 other women,” said Linda Cayton, another formerly incarcerated woman who now works as a peer support professional. “And we don't have to worry about guards walking by and looking at us while we're sitting on our toilets.”
Further north, in Baltimore, Maryland, Godfrey Molen checks in on staff at the ReBorn Store warehouse. Through his nonprofit, Friendly Loving Opportunities, Molen runs a Furniture Assistance Program that delivers free furniture to people in need.
"Furniture is very expensive," Molen told WBAL 11 News. "When people are thinking about buying furniture, they are only thinking about buying in pieces. We come in and furnish the entire home. So, a lot of times, families are very emotional about it because what they think could take a lifetime or years to be able to accomplish, they were able to do it in a day."
The program succeeds thanks to dedicated staff members like Brandon Richardson, who works as the warehouse manager.
"It's just a blessing to help people out, and also to help me out,” Richardson said. “And I stay on the straight line, not doing the wrong thing and stuff like that.”
Like many of his coworkers, Richardson struggled to find work before Friendly Loving Opportunities took him on.
"We recruit and provide job opportunities for guys in shelters, recovery and formerly incarcerated individuals in the community," said Molen. "We teach them how to fix furniture and preserve furniture and repair it, and in return, these individuals give back the furniture to those in need in the community."
Every day, Molen fields referrals from social workers and case managers who reach out on behalf of families in need — sometimes as many as 100 applications a day. Although it can be overwhelming, he said his nonprofit always rises to the challenge.
"It makes somebody feel comfortable, provides dignity and hope for that person,” Molen said, of making houses into homes. “And it feels like they can accomplish anything they want to do.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the 2026 Home Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image via Alexander F Ungerer
