Safe. Dignified. Community-Built Shelter for Portlandโs Unhoused.
WeShine creates safe, supportive micro-villages that help Portlandโs unsheltered adults find stability, community, and a path toward permanent housing. Together, weโre transforming lives and neighborhoodsโone home at a time.
Celebrating 5 Years of WeShine
Events & Announcements
Weshine Snapshot Statistics
WeShine stands forย Welcoming, Empowering, Safe Habitation Initiativeย withย 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 regionโs shelter ecosystem. And, WeShine villages help reduce the regionโs 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.
Get Involved
Our dedicated WeShine community brings warmth, skills, and compassion โ the heart behind every WeShine initiative and success story.
Donations
Your generosity powers WeShineโs mission โ every contribution helps provide shelter, safety, and hope to those in need.
Site Partner
Together with Site Partners, WeShine transforms compassion into housing โ uplifting Portlandโs most vulnerable communities.
Villages
St. Andrews Community Village
Location:
North Portland
Site partner:
St Andrewโs 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.ย
Avalon Community Village
Location:
SE Portlandโs 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:
Northeast 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.ย ย
Villager Testimonials
A place to be our true selvesย
โ WeShine’s acronym stands for Welcoming, Empowering, Safe, Habitation Initiative (with) Neighborhood Engagement โ 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.ย
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 toย become, as she describes, โfinally, truly out for the first timeโ as a trans woman.
-Faeโs 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.ย
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 youโre 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 โ 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 donโt just help โ 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 Portlandโs unhoused residents and experience firsthand how small acts of kindness ripple into citywide change.
Please emailย info@weshinepdx.orgย 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 youโre 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 โ 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 communityโs 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 toย WeShine Initiative Inc.ย and mail it to:
3539 NE Sandy Blvd #525,
Portland, OR 97232
Partner & Sponsor Logos
Click our link in bio to support our GoFundMe for Parkrose Village!
Help WeShine Keep Lighting the Way for Portlandโs Most Vulnerable Neighbors
Right now, in three Portland neighborhoods, people who had nowhere to sleep are waking up safe.
Theyโre making coffee in a shared kitchen. Theyโre feeding a neighborโs dog. Theyโre walking to a health care appointment, maybe for the first time in years. For many of them, this is what healing feels like.
WeShine Initiative makes this possible. Since 2021, weโve operated small, community-centered transitional shelter villages in Portland, places where neighbors know each otherโs names, where staff show up every day with lived experience and genuine care, and where people donโt just survive their housing crisis, they begin to thrive.
The county shelter system is largely built around menโs and womenโs facilities โ leaving nonbinary folks misdirected or without options. And data on LGBTQIA+ homelessness here is still incomplete.
A cityโs reputation for inclusion has to be backed up by real infrastructure.
Thatโs what WeShine is working to build โ one village at a time. ๐ก
#TransRights #NonBinary #Portland #HousingEquity #WeShine Pride2025
Thank you to our besties @gathermakeshelter for this stunning and heartfelt gallery show honoring WeShine villagers and alumni villagers. WeShine does not shine without Gather:Make:Shelter! The work they do to insert art into our spaces and into our souls is invaluable. They are one of the absolute best non profits benefiting our unhoused neighbors in PDX!
Come see the show at the @gathermakeshelter gallery until June 28th Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00-4:00 or by appointment!
1335 NW Kearney St.
Portland, OR 97209
#gathermakeshelter #artsaveslives #communitypartnership #firstthursdays #unhousedneighbors
You know we love a forklift! Two more pods arrived for our new and improved Parkrose Community Village! We also love forklift drivers like Tom, our buddy from @lmcconstruction
We are delighted by this blue sleeping pod from our friends in Seattle @soundfoundationsnw We have 8 pods now! 5 more to go!! Whooo!
#unhousedneighbors #solvinghomelessness #microvillages #alternativeshelters #soundfoundationsnw
Come see us at the @gathermakeshelter First Thursday reception for this fabulous show: Luminous-The story of WeShine and Gather:Make:Shelter on Thursday June 4th from 5:30-7:30 at 1335 NW Kearney St. Portland, Oregon 97209
#community #firstthursday #art #unhousedneighbors #gathermakeshelter
Family rejection, discrimination in employment, and a shelter system that often wasnโt built with them in mind all play a role.
This Pride Month, WeShine is sharing why safe, affirming shelter AND housing are not just housing issues, they are justice issues.
Stay with us all month. ๐ ๐
#PrideMonth #WeShine #Portland #2slgbtqia HomelessnessAwareness
Look what is coming together swimmingly! More new pods arrived last week from @soundfoundationsnw !! And more arriving this week! We love these pods they are sooo homey, roomy and pretty! We enjoy sharing this whole process with you all!
๐๏ธ๐ก๐๏ธ๐ก๐๏ธ๐ก
#unhousedneighbors #tinypodvillages #shelter #weshinepdx #fromseattletoportland
Happy Pride Month from WeShineโs Central Office in the basement of the lovely @westprespdx !! We will be posting all month about the specific challenges our unhoused neighbors who identify as #2slgbtqia face in Portland. It is a month of celebration but also a call to roll up our sleeves to work harder at uplifting our queer communities AND reducing homelessness!
#portlandoregon #solvinghomelessness #unhousedneighbors #pridemonth2026๐โค๏ธ๐งก๐๐๐๐
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!
Letโs Connect
Mailing addressย
WeShine
3539 NE Sandy Blvd #525,
Portland, OR 97232