WEST HAVEN — Many homeless people carry all their worldly belongings in a plastic bag.

When they finally find a home, they have no furniture. They have no bed. No kitchen table. No chairs.

To help people lacking these basic necessities, New Haven Home Recovery opened the Furniture Co-op at 30 Morris Ave. in January. Now, agencies that work with the homeless can supply furnishings to their newly housed clients as soon as possible.

The agency’s warehouse is stuffed with furniture and housewares, and most of it is good stuff. Bob’s Furniture, for instance, often donates new furniture. If a client qualifies, it’s all free, except for a delivery charge.

The agency, located at 153 East St. in New Haven, is a nonprofit group that provides housing for homeless people and operates two emergency shelters.

Agency officials said furniture gives newly housed people a sense of stability, especially when the alternative means sitting on the floor and staring at empty walls.

“Think about your own home,” said Kellyann Day, executive director of New Haven Home Recovery. “Think about your kitchen table. You don’t just eat there. It’s where the kids do homework, where you talk and laugh and fight. It all happens at the kitchen table.”

In the co-op’s first two months, 75 families used the warehouse for furnishings and clothing.

“We are turning houses into homes,” said Allen Klein, a New Haven Home Recovery board member who has volunteered countless hours bringing in furniture, organizing it and delivering it to homes.

“You have to stand here when people get a bed so they can sleep on it that night. They are so thankful,” Klein said.

For years, New Haven Home Recovery stored donated furniture in a spare room, using it for once homeless families that have found housing. The room became too crowded, and Day said she realized they needed to set up a full operation in order to meet clients’ needs. She also knew that other nonprofit agencies that worked with low-income people had the same need for donated furniture.

“We’ve had an overwhelming response,” Day said. “Agencies said, ‘This is something our clients really need.’”

Not a single government dollar or grant supports the operation.

The agency has managed to keep costs down by letting volunteers do most of the heavy lifting in the warehouse and relying on private donors to cover the $40,000 annual lease on the building.

Total program expenses will be closer to $75,000 once the agency hires a staff member to keep the co-op organized.

The agency opened the warehouse in November; by December they had filled it with donations.

Donors include businesses sending not-quite-perfect new mattresses, bedding and decor. The agency has put a moratorium on toy donations, which Day said would easily take over the warehouse. They also do not accept used pillows, computers, automotive supplies, holiday decor, exercise equipment, platform or water beds, toiletries, food or diapers.

Volunteers putting in long hours have stuffed the 10,000-square-foot warehouse with armchairs, dressers, kitchen tables, mattresses, armoires, lamps, dishes. Racks of clothes and rows of boots help fill empty closets. Clients only need to pay for delivery. The agency has made special arrangements with several contractors so that delivery rates can be as low as $50.

In addition to furniture, the warehouse stock includes sewing machines, fans, mirrors, pots and pans, cookie jars, blankets, blenders, a microwave, a television set and a potted plastic tree.

The sewing machines have been extremely popular, Klein said, and they even have been able to provide one client with a sewing table.

So far, eight agencies have joined the co-op. They contribute by paying a membership fee and assigning volunteers to help sort clothes and shelve items.

To qualify for “shopping” at the co-op, a client must be referred by a case manager at a member agency.

For more information, visit www.nhhr.com or call 389-1112 (the warehouse) or 492-4866, ext. 12 (the New Haven Home Recovery Co-op coordinator).

Maria Garriga can be reached at mgarriga@nhregister.com or 789-5726.