Damien Haussling just wanted to give away free furniture.

That’s what he told himself and his friends on tough days, when running the nonprofit he co-founded gave him heartburn. The phrase caught on and became his mantra, his life’s North Star.

Haussling died July 15 of a heart attack at the Baltimore Furniture Bank warehouse in Woodberry. He was 52.

The path to building the nonprofit, which collects and distributes gently used furniture, connected him to neighborhoods and communities across Baltimore that often go ignored. Haussling, who experienced homelessness, understood that the journey back from such hardship requires more than just a roof.

“He saw the difference between having a furnished home for one’s mental health, and dignity, and sense of security and future,” said Camille Mihalic, a friend and Baltimore Furniture Bank co-founder. “It was his heart, it was his full existence.”

Raised in Northern Virginia, Haussling came from a big family that included six brothers. All were adopted.

A brother, Nick Haussling, said Damien excelled in the classroom and developed a passion for pop music. The two volunteered one summer at a camp for children with disabilities, which Nick called a formative experience for Damien.

“I think that was the start of it,” Nick Haussling said. “Our parents instilling in us to help people.”

After graduating from Loudon County High School, Damien went on to study psychology at the University of Mary Washington, where he finished with a bachelor’s degree. He dreamed of earning a doctorate in math and worked as a high school teacher.

But in the early 2000s, Haussling’s life took a turn. His wife and mother-in-law were killed by a drunk driver, and while he grieved, he became entangled with the law, shoplifting to survive. He lost his teaching job and his home.

While paroled in Baltimore in 2012, Haussling discovered new dreams: those that involved advocating and supporting people in need. Before long, he enmeshed himself in the city’s vibrant advocacy community, serving on boards, learning the ins and outs of organizing and eventually earning a spot in AmeriCorps VISTA, a volunteer program.

That’s when he joined the Word on the Street, a newspaper that employed people who experienced housing insecurity and trained them in journalism, as an office manager.

At Word on the Street, he met John Devecka, a friend and confidante who watched Haussling grow into a writer and editor. The job, Devecka said, brought out the best in his friend.

“He wasn’t ashamed of what he had had to deal with and what he had to overcome,” Devecka said. “He took everybody on an equal footing, just viewed and treated everybody as equal.”

As the coordinator of the Faces of Homelessness Speakers Bureau, Haussling helped shine a light on the root causes of housing insecurity. As a speaker, Devecka said, Haussling could warm hearts just as easily as he could bring people to tears.

He also served on the city’s Continuum of Care board — which helps guide Baltimore’s response to people experiencing housing insecurity — as it designed the protocol for “Code Blue” shelter use.

That saved lives, Devecka said, as did Haussling’s personal outreach to people on cold nights to make sure they made it to safety. In a memorial post, the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services praised Haussling as a devoted public servant who dedicated his life to the ending homelessness.

In 2017, Haussling, Devecka and Tony Simmons — a friend he made while experiencing homelessness who became foundational to his life — launched an ad hoc furniture hub out of a garage. The idea came together partly from Haussling’s own transition out of housing instability and his observations from the field. They met Mihalic, the furniture bank’s eventual project lead, while volunteering in Cecil County and convinced her to join them.

At first, Haussling and his co-founders plucked items here and there from friends and neighbors to donate. Then they won the support of hospitals and universities, many of which happily parted ways with beds, tables, chairs, couches and other common household goods en masse.

Nonprofits including House of Ruth Maryland, the Center for Hope and the Women’s Housing Coalition latched on, too, sending client referrals to the furniture bank. Those clients have, at times, fled abuse or danger and have looked to the team for help creating a fresh start; other times, some have sought to smooth the transition out of homelessness.

In 2019, the now-defunct Open Society Institute-Baltimore branch awarded Haussling a fellowship to take the furniture bank to new heights. The group upgraded to a larger warehouse space, bought equipment and paid Haussling a small salary. Institutions ramped up their donations. The furniture bank hoped to hire even more employees and provide job training for people hoping to rebuild their lives.

Haussling worked directly with clients looking to furnish new homes, Mihalic, said. In those moments, he shined.

“Damien could really relate to that trauma,” Mihalic said. “There would be a twinkle in his eye when people would come in. He would make them feel comfortable.”

Devecka said Haussling’s hard work won’t go to waste. The furniture bank will live on.

A memorial service for Haussling is planned for Saturday, Aug. 3, at St. Vincent de Paul Church. A boxed lunch giveaway will follow. All are welcome.