Suburban Women Help Single Moms Design New Lives

BIRMINGHAM - Do you have some furniture or home accessories looking for a new home? You can take the traditional route and try Goodwill, Salvation Army or Purple Heart. Or you can help Humble Design .

Started about a year and a half ago by a pair of Birmingham women, Humble Design furnishes homes and apartment mainly for single moms coming out of Detroit-area shelters.

“Not only do we deliver it,” Treger Strasberg says, describing their mission, “but we make sure that it’s clean then we design their home. We don’t just throw in a bunch of furniture and it feels very transient. It feels like a solid home, feels more substantial.

Treger and her friend Ana Smith are recent transplants to the Detroit area. “I instantly felt a kinship with the city.” Treger explains, “I wanted to do what I could do.”

“In our posh suburban existence,” Ana adds, “you sort of forget to be thankful for anything. We take it all for granted. These kids come in and look at you with these wide eyes and say are we allowed to stay here? We say yes this is yours.”

Humble Design has furnished 31 homes in just over a year. Krista Poole’s was their first.

“They were a miracle to my life and I’m thankful for knowing them.” Krista says, seated in her tastefully appointed living room. “They go out of their way to make you feel like you’re on a home makeover show.”

Expenses for Humble Design are small. “Mike the Mover” gives them a big discount on pick-ups and deliveries and they look for deals on fabric cleaning. But the charity could use some help with storage. Right now they’re forced to coordinate pickups with delivers. A small warehouse in the Birmingham/Bloomfield area would allow them to take more time to create designs.

For more information on how you can help, donate or volunteer just click here .