Dignity Village

09/19/2025

News presenter calls for mass murder of unhoused people.

09/04/2025

Can't make it to our fundraiser? There are some easy ways to donate remotely. See link in comments for details

09/02/2025

THIS SUNDAY!!!
Dignity Village Celebrates 25 Years with Community Birthday Party & Fundraiser.
Portland, OR – September 7, 2025 – Dignity Village, Portland’s pioneering membership-based community providing shelter and empowerment for unhoused neighbors, is proud to announce its 25th Anniversary Birthday Party & Fundraiser on Sunday, September 7, from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM at 9401 NE Sunderland Avenue.
Founded in 2000, Dignity Village was the first community to envision and create the Village Model for shelter—a democratically self-governed, self-operated approach to ending homelessness that has since inspired similar programs across the nation. For 25 years, Dignity Village has provided safe shelter for up to 60 people each night while fostering self-determination, sustainability, and community building.
Dignity Village began as a vision of a better future from people coming out of the doorways and from under bridges, off of Portland’s streets. For 25 years, we’ve proven through practice and research that community-led, self-governed shelter works, especially for long-term unhoused people with multiple barriers to housing—and we’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone with our neighbors, supporters, and friends!
The anniversary celebration will feature:
Live performance by Casey Neill
Meal included with entry ($10 adults, $5 children 10 & under)
Concessions for purchase (slushies, popcorn, cotton candy)
Raffle ($2 tickets), bingo, karaoke, and a horseshoes tournament
A screening of the Dignity Village history video
Stories from founding villagers reflecting on 25 years of impact
A Call for Community Support
Dignity Village is in need of support following government budget cuts to our bus tickets, laundry, hygiene supplies, and the Village’s only staff member. The former staff is currently volunteering their time to maintain critically essential support, but the lack of full-time capacity makes it impossible to fully meet the community’s needs. The Village also needs funds to maintain and repair its aging infrastructure. Proceeds from this fundraiser will help bridge these gaps and ensure that Portland continues to have safe, community-based alternatives to street homelessness.
Join us in celebrating a quarter-century of dignity, resilience, and hope—while helping sustain the future of Dignity Village.
Please be sure to RSVP for the event here: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FAtinybw9/ and please share with friends!

09/01/2025

Dignity Village Celebrates 25 Years with Community Birthday Party & Fundraiser. Please tell all your friends!

Portland, OR – September 7, 2025 – Dignity Village, Portland’s pioneering membership-based community providing shelter and empowerment for unhoused neighbors, is proud to announce its 25th Anniversary Birthday Party & Fundraiser on Sunday, September 7, from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM at 9401 NE Sunderland Avenue.

Founded in 2000, Dignity Village was the first community to envision and create the Village Model for shelter—a democratically self-governed, self-operated approach to ending homelessness that has since inspired similar programs across the nation. For 25 years, Dignity Village has provided safe shelter for up to 60 people each night while fostering self-determination, sustainability, and community building.

Dignity Village began as a vision of a better future from people coming out of the doorways and from under bridges, off of Portland’s streets. For 25 years, we’ve proven through practice and research that community-led, self-governed shelter works, especially for long-term unhoused people with multiple barriers to housing—and we’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone with our neighbors, supporters, and friends!

The anniversary celebration will feature:

Live performance by Casey Neill

Meal included with entry ($10 adults, $5 children 10 & under)

Concessions for purchase (slushies, popcorn, cotton candy)

Raffle ($2 tickets), bingo, karaoke, and a horseshoes tournament

A screening of the Dignity Village history video

Stories from founding villagers reflecting on 25 years of impact

A Call for Community Support

Dignity Village is in need of support following Multnomah County’s decision to discontinue funding for bus tickets, laundry, hygiene supplies, and the Village’s only staff member. The former staff is currently volunteering their time to maintain critically essential support, but the lack of full-time capacity makes it impossible to fully meet the community’s needs. The Village also needs funds to maintain and repair its aging infrastructure. Proceeds from this fundraiser will help bridge these gaps and ensure that Portland continues to have safe, community-based alternatives to street homelessness.

Join us in celebrating a quarter-century of dignity, resilience, and hope—while helping sustain the future of Dignity Village.

Visit https://dignityvillage.org/ and be sure to RSVP for the event here: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FAtinybw9/ and please share with friends!

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08/29/2025

This video was once used for our orientation for new villagers. We're hoping to work on a new one with some updates. But it's still good history for what we're all about and a neato time capsule. "Catch the Dream!"

08/29/2025

Hello friends, we will be merging our new page with our old page here. So we're posting some highlights, links, and photos from the last year or so:

Nov 12, 2024 our Board Chair Lisa Larson and Village Program Specialist Victory LaFara presented to the County Board of Commissioners on the Micro Village Expansion Project. We were part of a community based participatory qualitative research study on villages, interviewing 120 villagers from 9 villages. The data revealed a comprehensive list of best and worst practices and more clearly defined development and program/service designs for villages. Our hope is to improve shelter practices and create more real village model shelters with better support from communities and government. Villages highlighted in the presentation were Dignity Village, Hazelnut Grove, R2DToo, St Johns, Kenton Womens, and Parkrose Village.
To clarify, the MVEP research does not support the practices of TASS, SRV, Sunstone Way/AGNW, or Urban Alchemy. The wide misuse of "village" has been an unfortunate misnomer that is confusing both policymakers and the public. This research should not be taken as an endorsement of those very different shelter models. See the presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn3s8VtxpKY
Read the summary report on recommendations here: https://www.microvillagespdx.org/

AFSCME Local 1790 JOIN Alliance of Workers came out and helped us start repainting the Commons. Bye-bye budget white; hello cheerful green! If you happen to have a 5 gallon container of a blue that might pair well or some funds to buy it, we'd love to finish the whole Commons to protect the siding before the wet weather really settles in.

Going camping this weekend? Got a backyard fire pit? You can support Dignity Village by purchasing firewood from our micro business. We process logs (dropped off from Metro and other services that clear downed trees) into seasoned fire wood.

Plus some cat photos and pics of various village projects and a cool double rainbow

05/20/2025

Copied from MVEP:

Join the Micro Village Expansion Project in urging local government to maintain the Dignity Village Program Specialist–currently slated to be cut–to ensure its success!
ACTION 1: Email City + County Commissioners - Use these talking points and share your story on why Dignity is important!
Please include your personal story/example about why Dignity Village is important to you and our community!
We must maintain investments in strategies that are working: Dignity is the first village in Portland and cited nationally as a model of success. Data on housing placements, leadership and professional development, and excellent neighbor and police relations backs this up. In a budget focused on maintaining existing services, we should be prioritizing Dignity’s operations. Eliminating the position would run counter to MVEP’s recommendations. Let’s invest in what’s working!
Villager leadership and self-governance are the heart of success: Dignity created the Village Model 25 years ago. The core of the model is villager leadership and self-governance. There is nothing symbolic about its leadership roles; villagers are the board officers, managers, day-to-day operations, small business administrators, and more. Dignity’s program, via a Village Program Specialist, invests in building people up to reach their self-defined goals and ensures that poor people have access to training and experience in professional roles.
The Village Program Specialist is key to self-governance: A key element of the Village Model success is an embedded Village Program Specialist whose role is to support villager leadership and provide training and guidance on programs, partnerships, finance, contracting, administration, systems, and data management. This professional support enables Dignity to be truly self-governed and make well-informed organizational decisions.
Funding Dignity is an affordable investment in successful outcomes: The Village Program Specialist is salaried at just $65,000 plus fringe. Dignity’s ask to retain this role is humble, reasonable, and can be met easily. This role is a complement to other important supportive services, such as housing case management. At a maximum $264,000 total operating budget, Dignity is more affordable by millions than large, agency-managed outdoor shelters.

County + City Contact Information
County Commissioners - Copy this list of County Commissioners and the Chair and paste it into a new email and send your comments:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
More info here: https://multco.us/info/about-board-county-commissioners
City Commissioners - Copy this list of City Commissioners and the Mayor and paste it into a new email and send your comments:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
More info here: https://www.portland.gov/council/districts

05/20/2025

It is with heavy heart that we announce a recent cut in funding from the Multnomah County Homeless Services Department. This decision eliminates the funding for our only paid staff position and possibly other support associated with that contract (laundry, bus tickets, hygiene/sanitation supplies, winter gear, mattresses, etc.).

Dignity Village has been able to more successfully self-administer our 501c3 operations with full democratic agency, thanks in large part to having consistent professional support provided by a full-time macro MSW for the last 8 years. This crucial role has been instrumental in offering advising, training, data management, and advocacy for our community.

The loss of this funding jeopardizes our ability to maintain this vital professional support. Our dedicated staff person believes so strongly in the importance of this position that they have volunteered to continue their work for as long as they are able, while we actively seek to reinstate funding.

Our modest funding request to sustain this essential role is $65,000/yr, plus fringe benefits. Dignity Village operates on a significantly more cost-effective model than other shelters, with a current annual operating budget of $161,000, and a potential of $265,000 if fully funded. This makes our model millions of dollars cheaper.

Throughout our 25-year history, Dignity Village has overcome numerous challenges. We are confident that with your support, we will navigate this setback as well. We have survived on duct tape and dreams before.

However, we do need your support. Please consider reaching out to your City Councilors and County Commissioners to share why you believe Dignity Village is a valuable asset to our community and deserves their support. Kindly urge them to identify a source of funding for us. Please donate what you can and help us apply for grants. Every little bit will help us get by until we can get stable funding again. Your advocacy can make a real difference in ensuring the continued success, stability, and democracy of Dignity Village.

02/08/2016

The Eugene sites are modeled after Portland's Dignity Village Inc. and R2D2. These concepts are important interim solutions to help people off the streets. It's great to see the concept catching on!

The Arizona Daily Star reports (http://bit.ly/1nSLpGu ) that city leaders have recently formed a work group to explore alternative housing programs as a way to help the homeless find transitional housing.

According to a 2015 point-in-time count by the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness there are about 567 homeless people in the Tucson metro area.

11/21/2015

Because this works.

A new city-sanctioned homeless camp opened Thursday in Interbay, and another in Ballard is set to open this weekend.

08/20/2015

A good step!

The Justice Department steps into a case that could have broader implications.

05/14/2015

Unreal: Congress about to extend and spying on all of us. Tell them to back off.