We are so close to opening the “Moon Shot” - eight years ahead of schedule.
We put in an offer of $3.3 million in December 2017.
Brandi signs the paperwork to buy the property on May 23rd!
Our PHFS Village celebrates the morning after we take ownership.
143 volunteers gave 690 hours to help us remodel.
So far, we’ve received over $200,000 of in-kind building material donations.
Our new campus will serve 26 families at a time in private bedrooms.
The last two years have been transformational for PHFS.
In response to the overwhelming community need to expand and serve more families, PHFS formulated a 10-year vision during a strategic planning retreat in April 2017.
We envisioned owning and operating a program where families experiencing homelessness could come anytime, 24-hours a day, to access a variety of services – shelter, rapid re-housing, homeless prevention, life skills classes, mental health care, a hot meal, or a pack of diapers. This dream seemed so distant and audacious that we called it “The Moon Shot.”
But by December 2017, we had found a building in the SE Lents neighborhood that felt like it was made for our Moon Shot vision. So we put in an offer to buy the building. We thought it would take us ten years to achieve our Moon Shot goal, but opportunity struck and we found ourselves with five months to raise $3.3 million.
So many of you contributed to help us buy our building, and by the end of May 2018 we signed the paperwork, becoming owners of the one-acre property that will triple our capacity from 8 to 26 families a night, and allow us to expand all of our services.
Over the summer, we were introduced to a professional design team who spent months designing our new shelter using trauma-informed design and architecture, which is proven to help families get out of shelter faster and have more success getting into housing. When we first purchased the building, we had no idea that we would be creating the first family shelter of its kind in Oregon: a shelter that will help families heal through the trauma and crisis of homelessness by using the evidence-based model of trauma-informed design and architecture.
And now here we are, just months from opening our “Moon Shot”program – eight years ahead of schedule. We are so close, but still need your help to close the gap so we can welcome families this summer. Please consider a gift to PHFS so we can finish the remodel and fully implement our trauma-informed shelter that will build dignity, restore power, and promote autonomy for the families that live there.
Thank you for being on this journey with us.
With Gratitude,
Brandi Tuck,
PHFS Executive Director
