Square One Villages begins new community partnership

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Square One Villages is once again replicating its innovative solution to homelessness with a new community partnership. Evidence-based studies in many cities across the United States have demonstrated that a housing-first approach to homelessness gives people the security to address other issues that are barriers to their success. Square One Villages launched in Eugene, Oregon in 2013 with Opportunity Village, a 30 residence "transitional micro-housing" pilot project supported by Foundation Beyond Belief in 2016 and 2017.

Building on the success of its Opportunity Village, Square One Villages set out last year to "pilot an improved version of the tiny house village model in a small community with fewer local resources, and to promote very basic, extremely low-cost housing through the development of a toolbox and training kit focused on replicating this approach in other Oregon communities.” Square One Villages found an eager partner in the Cottage Village Coalition, a group of concerned individuals and organizations in Cottage Grove, Oregon exploring ways to reduce or eliminate homelessness in their community. Cottage Grove is a rural, under-resourced town 20 miles south of Eugene.

Square One Villages helped the Cottage Village Coalition establish an effective local organizing group in order to build political will for the project in Cottage Grove, identify potential sites, and develop planning and design goals for their village. In late 2016, the Cottage Grove City Council voted to officially support the project and agreed to help cover development costs.

As of February 2017, Square One Villages and Cottage Village Coalition have identified a prospective site for the project and are currently conducting site design workshops to establish a design for the site. Square One Villages is also continuing to develop its Village Toolbox online resource so that other organizations in Oregon and around the world can benefit from the lessons Square One Villages has learned. Communities everywhere can adapt Square One Villages' vision of advancing self-sufficiency and human dignity by providing safe, stable, well-designed tiny homes in a village setting for those who need them most.