Squareone Villages

“Board members are provided a finished copy of form 990 via email. They are assisted by a full description of relevant areas to review and provide feedback. In addition, the board reviews the filed form 990 at the next board meeting.”

“The conflict of interest policy is reviewed annually at the regularly scheduled board meeting. Whenever a conflict of interest occurs, or the appearance of conflict, the policy is discussed and the conflict noted in the minutes.”

“Review of similar size organizations and responsibilities was made by key members of the board.”

“The governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements, as well as the form 990 are available on the website.”

“Fundraising, grant writing, intern managment of emerald village, help transition homeless individuals to community living, and construction of living spaces”

“Emerald village eugene (eve), is a permanent affordable housing project that will contain 22-houses for people with very low incomes. This project is an innovative response to the lack of affordable housing in our community. Construction began in summer 2017 and completion is anticipated in 2019. When complete, eve will house 27-32 people, all of whom have very low or extremely low incomes. The residents will form a self-managed residential co-op that will lease the facilities from squareone villages (sov). Currently, a 6-person volunteer interim board of directors manages eve. Rents are ranging from 250 to 350 per month based on house size, including utilities -- extremely affordable even for a resident whose sole income is social security or disability income. In addition, due to the co-op membership, each resident will accrue an asset of up to 1,500 with 50 of their monthly rent to be accrued for the first 30 months, which they will sell back to sov upon leaving eve. Once the membership is paid, the monthly rent will be reduced for 50. Residents must reside at eve for one year before their membership is fully vested. At end of 2018, 17 homes are complete and occupied, with five remaining to complete in 2019.”

“Opportunity village eugene (ove) provides transitional housing for people who are homeless in a self-managed community of small sleeping shelters with common kitchen, bathroom, and laundry facilities. Ove is a first step off the street for people who are homeless to stabilize their lives, recover from the trauma of being homeless, and access needed social and health services. A village coordinator, the sov project director, and a master's social work intern (during the academic year) supports each resident in their transition from homelessness back to community living. Volunteers provide an estimated 40 hours per week at ove (total all volunteers). Volunteers administer resident support funding for transition needs; housing advocates assist residents in searching and applying for affordable housing; and two people volunteer as carpenters to do repair and construction work. During 2018, occupancy at ove was 35 people. At various times during the year, 22 people left ove. Of those who left, 13 transitioned to permanent housing; 2 moved to other transitional housing; 6 left ove and remained homeless; and destinations for 3 were unknown.”

“Cottage village (cv) is a planned 13-tiny house affordable housing village in cottage grove, designed for people with very low incomes. Cv is being developed by squareone villages in partnership with the cottage village coalition, a group of housing and homelessness advocates in the rural community of cottage grove. Shared facilities will include a large commons building with meeting and kitchen space and laundry; gardens and green spaces. Cottage village will be organized as a residential co-op in which the residents self-manage the community and the maintenance of the shared facilities and the property. A 3-bedroom house on the property is currently rented to a family of five, with the intention that the renters will become part of the cottage village community. Design options for the tiny houses have been selected, work has begun on the land use application, and site preparation and construction began in 2018.”

“Toolbox and consultation. The core services of squareone villages work is to promote self-managed communities of low-cost tiny houses for people in need of housing in lane county and other communities across the u.s. Sov provides consultations services to many communities in various states who are seeking low-cost, innovative solutions to homelessness and the critical lack of affordable housing. The tiny house village toolbox is a proprietary set of online resources for planning, developing, and operating a tiny house village from concept to reality. The purpose of the toolbox is to inform and mobilize a broad range of stakeholders in other communities who are in the process of creating new shelter and housing options and who wish to explore sov's resident-managed village model. The village model emphasizes a collaborative process to bring together a diverse range of stakeholders to examine the particular community's issues around homeless and access to affordable housing and to gain consensus on solutions. While tiny houses attract attention and spark interest, sov believes the most critical innovation of the village model is involving new players in the process of planning and developing a project. This includes community members and future residents, to create a stronger sense of local ownership, support, and resources and break down common stereotypes around homelessness and affordable housing. As part of the toolbox, we offer in- person tiny house village workshops held within a community to begin the process of community development of a tiny house village, and phone or in- person consultations with staff.”