Housing Works Thrift Shops, NEW YORK

Over the last decade, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe has become a Manhattan institution, one that routinely hosts live storytelling events and conversations with prominent writers. Featuring columns, dark wood shelving, and curved staircases that sweep up to the balconies, this soaring, loft-like space is filled from top to bottom with donated books and staffed primarily staffed by volunteers. The café offers coffee drinks, paninis, salads, and pastries. Best of all, though, is that 100% of the profits go to the Housing Works organization.

Housing Works provides advocacy, job training, health care, and housing support for low-income and homeless people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, Thrift Shops, and Buy the Bag help fund this effort by selling new and used donated goods. At the nonprofit's stores, shoppers can explore shelves upon shelves of donated items in search of a new designer shirt, a vintage necklace, a set of hand-painted bowls, or a hard-to-find novel.