Opening Family Village

In response to the overwhelming community need to expand and provide services to more families, PHFS created a 10-year strategic plan in March of 2017 to drastically increase and improve our services.

Our strategic vision included owning and operating a large facility where families experiencing homelessness could come anytime of day to access a variety of services – emergency shelter, rapid re-housing, homeless prevention, life skills classes, mental health care, domestic violence advocacy, a hot meal, or a pack of diapers. This dream seemed so distant and audacious that we called it “The Moon Shot” and thought it would take us ten years to accomplish.

But just eight months later, as we were investigating how we might start inching closer to our accomplishing our strategic vision, we found an old church in the SE Lents neighborhood of Portland that felt like it was just made for our Moon Shot vision. We decided to put in an offer for $3.3million and see if we could raise that much money by the time we closed on the property.

It turned out that we had just five months to raise enough money to buy our Moon Shot property. Over 800 individuals, businesses, foundations, and faith congregations stepped up and donated so generously that by the end of May 2018, PHFS closed on our property and became owners of a one-acre campus containing a 16,000 ft2 church, eight 2-bedroom apartments, and lots of room for growth.

During the summer of 2018, PHFS Executive Director Brandi was introduced to a downtown interior designer named Jessica Helgerson. When the two of them met, they really had no idea what the other one did and doubted there was any reason to collaborate.

But after meeting and touring our shelter space, Jessica agreed to design our new campus herself! In collaboration with Carleton Hart Architecture, Jessica and her team donated over 800 hours of pro bono design time to learn about trauma informed design & architecture and design our beautiful Family Village campus. PHFS went back to the community and raised another $2 million to remodel Family Village using these innovative new design principles.

PHFS opened Family Village in December of 2019. It is the first shelter of its kind in Oregon that helps families heal through the trauma and crisis of homelessness by using the evidence-based model of trauma-informed design and architecture.

Interior

Exterior

Watch the story of how Path Home purchased and remodeled Family Village and what a difference it is already making in the lives of the families who stay there. This is the next best thing to seeing the shelter in person!

Executive Director, Brandi Tuck, delivers a TedTalk about how trauma-informed design can change the way we provide services and shelter to people experiencing homelessness.

Family Village was awarded Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)’s Outstanding Innovative Project Award in 2020.

Family Village's unique trauma-informed design was featured in Portland Monthly.