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.

Mission 

WeShine designs, builds, and operates neighborhood-based micro-villages that provide safe, transitional shelter and services where vulnerable, unsheltered adults in the Portland metropolitan area can live as they prepare to become successful tenants in permanent, affordable housing.

Vision 

A regional network of micro villages that meet the varied and unique needs of unhoused people throughout many Portland neighborhoods. 

Values

Inclusion, dignity, and respect are present in all of our activities and operations. 

History

The WeShine Initiative, a nonprofit corporation, was formed in 2021 by a grass roots group of neighbors from several northeast and southeast neighborhoods, who came together to help find better solutions for people experiencing houselessness in Portland. 

Founders include Jan McManus, Chris Tanner, Dave Weaver, Joanne Herrigal, and DJ Heffernan, who envisioned a plan where every neighborhood would support at least one managed village to provide transitional housing for unsheltered neighbors. 

They were mobilized by the need for neighborhoods to engage in positive productive action to be part of the solution to houselessness — to offer hospitality rather than hostility — as well as a supportive pathway to affordable permanent housing. The white paper Solving Unsheltered  Homelessness in Portland and this PSU study Evaluation and Best Practices for the Village Model informed WeShine’s vision, as well as visits and interviews with a variety of village-style communities in Portland, in Oregon and in other states.

Our initial start-up and operational funding came from the Joint Office of Homeless Services and the City of Portland, as well as other grants and donations.

WeShine’s first village, Parkrose Community Village, opened in August 2022. Our second village, Avalon Village, opened in August, 2024, and our third, St Andrews Village, is under construction and will open in early 2025.

Read more about the WeShine Model.