As she rebuilds her life, even donated furniture feels like a game-changer

SALT LAKE CITY — Stephanie Pickering went through addiction treatment one time before it stuck, living on the streets for years in between. Now sober, life is looking up and she has her own apartment.

This week, she celebrated another milestone: Furniture. She has a place to live and now the pieces that make it feel like home.

On Wednesday, donated furniture was delivered to Pickering after she was nominated for North Star Hope Foundation's Furnishing Futures program. Over two days, the foundation delivered furniture to five recipients who, like Pickering, are transitioning out of homelessness, addiction recovery, or crisis situations.

Ten years ago, Pickering first fell into addiction, and in 2019, she was incarcerated and then began addiction recovery treatment at Odyssey House, where she now works. After the first round of treatment, Pickering fell back into addiction once again, also experiencing homelessness during that stretch.

"If you're not connected and don't stay in the community, you're not going to stay sober," Pickering said as she looks back on her experiences.

Pickering was arrested again in December 2023, and this time was given the option of being sent back out onto the street or to go back to treatment.

"I knew Odyssey saved my life once, so I knew they could do it again," she said.

Pickering went through another six months of inpatient treatment and graduated from the program in December 2024. Since then, she has been working at the facility as a behavioral tech, helping people going through what she went through.

After living in public housing for a few months, Pickering and her roommate Heather James moved into their apartment in February.

But until this week, their apartment was mostly bare.

She also works for the Alano Club, which provides 12-step addiction recovery meetings. James also works there, and the two of them work in the cafe, cooking food and working as cashiers.

From crisis to comfort

Pickering said having this furniture means so much to her because it helps her apartment feel more like a home and she now has stuff that is hers.

"I lived on the streets for five years, so, like, everything you get you lose," she said. "So to have something to come home to and like, feel like it's actually home, instead of just like, well, I have a few things, but like this means everything."

She added that even though she knows life is not about material things, the additions still make a big difference in her life. Through the program, Pickering received a bed, a couch, a rug, a coffee table, a dresser and other items to help her apartment feel more like home.

"Knowing that you've come from nothing, and like having something, it makes you feel better inside," she explained.

Pickering said getting her own furniture would have probably taken her about a year and a half longer.

Furnishing Futures through the North Star Hope Foundation

North Star has a few different facets, including North Star Recovery and Wellness, which provides treatment facilities to help fulfill the increasing demand for mental health and addiction recovery treatment.

The Furnishing Futures program is administered through the North Star Hope Foundation, which founder Jay Tobey says is the organization's way to give back to the community and help support people with mental health or substance abuse issues. He added that the foundation focuses on bringing hope to individuals struggling with these issues.

"We're really trying to shine a spotlight to say there's people in our community, you know, that need help, that are coming off of mental health, substance abuse and coming out of prison, probably because they suffered from mental health issues or substance abuse," Tobey said.

Tobey shared that after the foundation held a clothing drive earlier this year with some partner organizations, the group discovered that many people have extra furniture they don't use anymore and some companies have surplus furniture that they won't sell. So they elected to gather furniture donations and give them to those in the community who needed them.

The foundation spread the word about Furnishing Futures on social media, asking people to nominate someone they know who needed furniture. Tobey said the group received a lot of nominations, which was great but also hard because they couldn't give to everyone.

Pickering was nominated for Furnishing Futures by her son, who also struggles with addiction. She said he is so proud of her since he saw her at her lowest.

"Now he sees me doing really good, and he is so proud," she said.

Pickering said she was surprised when she received the call that she was chosen to get some new furniture.

Lifting burdens

The furniture was delivered to five different families. Each recipient gave a list of things they needed and those providing the furniture worked to get what they needed to fulfill each need. Each recipient received different items, and some even got appliances such as washers and dryers.

Furniture donations for the five recipients came from The Other Side Thrift Boutique, Habitat for Humanity and Ivy interiors. The deliveries were done by The Other Side.

Parker Paulsen, who works at North Star and helped with the furniture deliveries, pointed out that those who haven't been through these types of situations don't understand the toll it takes to not have a dining table or a couch or other basic items in a home that many people take for granted.

"It's been cool to see that burden be lifted and that they can move on to thinking about other problems in their life and tackling other challenges," Paulsen said.

Another recipient of the furniture was Amanda Huckabee, a single mother of five who recently moved back to Utah and just got into permanent housing earlier this month. Huckabee was nominated by the principal of her kids' elementary school.

"It kind of took me, like, for a shock. Like, these kind of things don't really happen to me, but I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be chosen, and I appreciate the help," Huckabee said.

Before moving into their new place a few weeks ago, Huckabee and her kids alternated between living in their car and staying with friends.

"The moral of the whole story is just never give up. Just always keep your faith and good things will happen," she added.

Giving back to others

Pickering said she has learned a lot as she has experienced so many hard things over the last few years. One of these things, she said her son taught her, is that in hard situations, it is OK not to be OK, to sit in it, understand where you're at, and then do something about it.

"Live in the solution, not the problem," she said.

Pickering shared that the second time she went through treatment, she was more determined to stay sober. She approached her second chance, wanting to make sure she truly dealt with all her issues.

"First time I went into treatment, I just wanted to get out, so I rushed through everything," she said. "This time it was like, I'm gonna stay here as long as I need to to be OK. ... I could have left earlier, but I didn't."

One of the biggest things she said that helped was staying connected with a community.

After she got out, she wanted to give back "to the people that saved my life," and one of the ways she does this is working at with the clients at Odyssey House.

"Every day I see somebody that struggles, and I can share my experience with them," Pickering said.

She shared that she's worked with people who have wanted to leave treatment early, which she wanted to do multiple times. She said she can now share her story with them, help them and hopefully stop them from leaving.

James and Pickering were roommates in treatment together and became friends there. When they first got into public housing, the two slept on air mattresses. Eventually, Pickering received a grant through Odyssey House she was able to buy them both twin beds, a TV and pay for the down payment on their apartment.

Through Furnishing Futures, Pickering received a king size bed and decided to give her old bed which was still in good condition, to The Other Side so that it can go to someone else.

"Because, they gave to me. It's about giving back, you know, it's not much, but, you know, I'm not gonna use it again, so why not give it to somebody?" Pickering said.

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