Safe. Dignified. Community-Built Shelter for Portland’s Unhoused.
WeShine creates safe, supportive micro-villages that help Portland’s unsheltered adults find stability, community, and a path toward permanent housing. Together, we’re transforming lives and neighborhoods—one home at a time.
Give!Guide is Oregon’s easiest way to give back—raising millions each year for local nonprofits. Together, we build a culture of generosity and community impact.
Youtube: WeShine 2025 Anthem
Weshine Snapshot Statistics
WeShine stands for Welcoming, Empowering, Safe Habitation Initiative with Neighborhood Engagement. Our villages are located in residential neighborhoods, with wraparound services and robust volunteer engagement. In conjunction with other types of shelter, WeShine is an important component of the region’s shelter ecosystem. And, WeShine villages help reduce the region’s unmanaged encampments.
3+
Villages
30+
Villagers
$1M+
Donations Raised
15+
Graduations To Housing
30+
Service Provided
15+
Dogs
6+
Cats
Core Functions Overview
Villages
Safe, supportive micro-villages offering transitional housing and wrap-around services that help villagers rebuild their lives with dignity.
Volunteers
Our dedicated volunteers bring warmth, skills, and compassion — the heart behind every WeShine initiative and success story.
Donations
Your generosity powers WeShine’s mission — every contribution helps provide shelter, safety, and hope to those in need.
Site Partner
Together with Site Partners, WeShine transforms compassion into housing — uplifting Portland’s most vulnerable communities.
Villages
St. Andrews Community Village
Location:
7600 N. Hereford Avenue, in North Portland
Site partner:
St Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Opened:
April 2025
Capacity:
10 sleeping pods for up to 10 adults
Participants:
Adults who are age 45 or older or adults of any age with a physical disability. Priority for those who also identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or who have been camping in the nearby area.
Avalon Community Village
Location:
2539 SE 19th Ave., in Portland’s Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood
Site partner:
Portland Bureau of Transportation
Opened:
August 2024
Capacity:
10 sleeping pods for up to 10 adults
Participants:
Female-identifying adults, with priority for those who are also Black, Indigenous, or People of Color, those who are older or who have disabilities, and those who have been camping nearby.
Parkrose Community Village
Location:
12501 NE Halsey St., Portland
Site partner:
Parkrose Community United Church of Christ
Opened:
August 2022
Capacity:
10 sleeping pods for up to 10 adults
Participants:
Adults who identify as LGBTQIA+, priority for those who are also Black, Indigenous, or People of Color or who have disabilities or who have been camping nearby.
Villager Testimonials
A place to be our true selves
“ WeShine’s acronym stands for Welcoming, Empowering, Safe, Habitation Initiative (with) Neighborhood Engagement – things that WeShine villages strive to provide. While WeShine works hard to serve our unsheltered neighbors, we often forget just how much the villagers give back to WeShine.
Fae came to us with a need for the safety, stability and privacy our villages provide, she brought with her an amazing drive for community organizing and outreach. After experiencing deep trauma and homelessness in Los Angeles, in the Spring of 2023, she chose to make the move to Portland, hoping to become, as she describes, “finally, truly out for the first time” as a trans woman.
-Fae’s story
How To Join A Village
WeShine Village Application and Information
The waitlists at all villages are currently closed
If you have questions about our villages or would like to receive an email once our waitlists open back up again, please contact shelter@weshinepdx.org.
Our Vision: A regional network of micro villages that meet the varied and unique needs of unhoused people throughout many Portland neighborhoods.
Learn about WeShine
WeShine Villages
- Parkrose Community Village: adults who identify as LGBTQIA2S+.
- Avalon Community Village: female-identifying adults.
- St. Andrews Community Village: Adults who are age 45 or older, or adults of any age with a physical disability.
- All villages prioritize serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, people with disabilities, and those who have been camping in the nearby area.
Volunteer
Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteers are the heartbeat of WeShine. Whether you’re lending a hand at one of our micro-village sites, helping organize supplies, assisting residents as they transition into permanent housing, or contributing your professional skills — your time and compassion make a lasting impact.
Every act of service adds up to something powerful: a brighter, safer, and more connected Portland. At WeShine, volunteers don’t just help — they embody our mission of Welcoming, Empowering, Safe Habitation with Neighborhood Engagement. By working alongside staff, residents, and partners, you help transform compassion into tangible action that changes lives.
Together, we build bridges of dignity and opportunity, one neighbor at a time. Join us in bringing light, safety, and community to Portland’s unhoused residents and experience firsthand how small acts of kindness ripple into citywide change.
Please email info@weshinepdx.org if you are interested in volunteering.
(WeShine is updating its volunteer opportunities and application process.)
What Our Volunteer and Community Partners Say
How To Volunteer
At WeShine, every act of service makes a difference. Whether you’re lending your time, your skills, or simply your presence, volunteering helps create safe, welcoming spaces for Portlanders rebuilding their lives. Explore the ways you can get involved — and be part of a community that shines brighter together.
Join a Community Event
Be part of the movement that brings neighbors together. Attend WeShine events, organize supply drives, or help raise awareness across Portland. Every gathering you join builds connection, compassion, and hope within our community.
Lend a Hand at a Village
We need help in these areas: Any sort of specialty including finances, mental health classes, art classes, cooking classes, budgeting.
Hands on help in the village
Small construction projects, gardening, cooking
Donations
You can make a difference
At WeShine, we believe that everyone in our community deserves access to a place to call home and the opportunity to write their own unique and powerful story.
Today, we invite you to make a donation and become a part of this transformative story. Together, we can overcome the systemic barriers to housing that limit our community’s potential.
There are many ways to support WeShine:
- Make a one-time donation
- Mail a check
- Become a Monthly Sustainer
- Through a Donor Advised Fund (DAF)
- Contribute from an IRA (Required Minimum Distribution)
Please make your check payable to WeShine Initiative Inc. and mail it to:
3539 NE Sandy Blvd #525,
Portland, OR 97232
Partner & Sponsor Logos
Latest News
Portland Church Will Open Housing Village
New North Portland village to offer transitional shelter for up to 10 individuals
We Shine opens 3rd micro-village in Portland
Avalon Village Burglarized. Donations needed to replace stolen items.
Avalon Village: New Portland shelter empowers its residents through self-governance
Jan McManus of We Shine on tiny villages for underserved communities
Become one with WeShine before midnight tonight! Our donors are part of our community of volunteers, staff, board members, neighbors, business partners who make WeShine shine! We shine brightest together!
We are also still giving away coffee to any donation over $50!
@giveguide
#unhousedneighbors #portlandhomelessness #willametteweekgiveguide
Help us reach our goal by midnight on New Year’s Eve! You become part of the solution to homelessness when you support WeShine in this year’s @giveguide
Our unhoused neighbors deserve dignity, warmth, safety, and community to heal from the trauma of being on the streets. WeShine microvillages help folks heal. Our amazing staff work with them for up to two years to gain readiness to be permanently housed!
Help us help them! Click our donate link in bio!
#housing #alternativeshelters #giveguide
The 2025 @willametteweek @giveguide is ALMOST over! 😭😭😭😭😭
Contribute to @weshinepdx before midnight on December 31st! We want to reach our $25,000 and turn that support from you right into supporting your unhoused neighbors at our microvillages! We love our staff, villagers, volunteers, partners and of course YOU! If you are reading this you are a part of our community!
🎉🥳🎊
#endofyeardonation #giveguide #unhousedneighbors
Let’s go to the theater! Get cultured on Big Culture Day in the @giveguide This is the last official Big Give Day in the 2025 Willamette Week Give Guide: An overnight stay in Ashland with 2 free tickets to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and $100 at @thenoblefoxashland
Our donors are important members of the WeShine community! Donate today at our link in bio! @osfashland @ashlandspringshotel
#oregonshakespearefestival #nonprofit #portlandhomeless
Hey let’s close out the new year by reaching our $25,000 goal! We are currently at 81% of that goal and only a little over 48 hours left to donate in the 2025 @giveguide
With your support we are able to continue our mission of building and operating neighborhood microvillages that serve some of Portland’s most underserved members of our unhoused and unsheltered community. We want to always be working towards solving homelessness. WeShine villages offer a safe, welcoming, dignified space with access to showers, a community kitchen, programming activities and wrap around services to guide folks on the journey to permanent housing! Help us help people!
Donate at our link in bio! Tonight until midnight you could win an E-Bike and tomorrow, 12/30, you could win tickets and an overnight stay at Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival!
#oregonshakespearefestival #unhousedneighbors #willametteweekgiveguide
Help us get to our year end goal of $25,000 in this year’s @giveguide If you donate today you can be entered to win a @splendid_cycles @ternbicycles E-Bike, valued at over $5000.
Keep WeShine Shining! Help your #unhousedneighbors by supporting our mission of creating neighborhood based microvillages in Portland for some of the most underserved communities. Our villages welcome folks who are LGBTQIA2S+, Black, Indigenous or People of Color, folks with physical disabilities and older adults.
Hit the link in bio!
#lgbtqia2s #solvinghomelessness
It’s Big E-bike Day! You can support WeShine and all that we do AND have a chance to win this fabulous @ternbicycles from @splendid_cycles today! You have til midnight December 29th to enter and win!
The @giveguide is a lovely way to support local nonprofits doing the work in our region for social change. At @weshinepdx we believe our unhoused neighbors deserve to have safe and dignified shelter spaces to heal from homelessness and prepare to enter housing! Help us help them today!
#freeebike #portlandhomeless #giveguide2025
Don’t sleep on Big Cool Day! It’s too cool! Donate as little as $10 and you can get your name in the hopper for $300 off @atlastattoo and $100 @midtownbeergardenpdx and a cool @audiotechnicausa turntable OR $100 at @musicmillennium !!
🦄 there are extra chances to win if you are under 35 years old! Check out @giveguide for more deets!
#keepportlandweird #willametteweekgiveguide #nonprofitgiving
Newsletter
Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter, The Village View. Read the latest edition below, and sign up here to get the next one in your inbox. The Village View highlights recent happenings in our current villages, exciting announcements, articles by staff on homelessness issues in our region, engaging stories about the folks we serve and more. Sign up today!
Let’s Connect
Mailing address
WeShine
3539 NE Sandy Blvd #525,
Portland, OR 97232