Villages: a grassroots innovation to address homelessness
The idea that tiny home villages could be part of the solution for homelessness sprang up from those who understood the issue first hand - those experiencing it.
A group of residents built their own tiny shelters and formed Portland’s first tiny home (or pod) community: Dignity Village.
Center co-founders Todd Ferry and Sergio Palleroni, architects in Portland State University’s Center for Public Interest Design (CPID), saw the value in building upon this grassroots effort. They helped secure city support and funding for the Kenton Women's Village, Portland’s first city-sanctioned village. They also helped design and build the village while coordinating efforts by the larger design community and housing advocates. Since then the CPID has contributed to the creation of the Clackamas Veteran’s Village and Agape Village.
Our center continues to support village efforts around the Portland area, including one of the newest proposals, an AfroVillage that will be made, organized, and managed by its residents - black women in transition from homelessness or returning from incarceration.
The village model has helped scores of people find stability and even transition to permanent housing. The next step is to better understand how villages work and for whom. The center is studying the model to develop a best practices guide informed by rigorous research.
It’s not the silver bullet solution to homelessness," Ferry said, “but what it is extremely good at is providing a safe and dignified place to heal and build community while in transition to permanent housing.