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”

“Opportunity village eugene (ove) provides an alternative shelter option for adults experiencing homelessness. A partnership with the city of eugene, ove consists of 29 detached sleeping shelters and shared common facilities including bathrooms, a shower, laundry facilities, cooking facilities, and a yurt with meeting space and computers for community use. Ove is a first step for people experiencing homelessness where they can stabilize their lives and access community services as they work toward securing housing. In 2020, covid-related funding allowed us to hire a part-time housing navigator to work with clients one on one to access housing. Of the 38 total adults served at ove in 2020, the housing navigator was able to assist 7 move into long-term housing. In addition, the housing navigator assist clients with obtaining identification documents, enroll in the oregon health plan, complete housing searches, and access stimulus payments. In addition, during 2020, several improvements to the facilities at ove were made in preparation for providing electricity and heat to all units.”

“Cottage village (cv) is a planned 14-unit permanently affordable housing cooperative located in cottage grove, or. Construction began in august 2019, and the first nine units were completed for occupancy in september of 2020. Cvc is being developed by squareone villages in partnership with the cottage village coalition, a group of volunteer housing and homelessness advocates in the rural community of cottage grove. Upon completion, cvc will include a shared community building with meeting space, cooking facilities, and laundry. Initial monthly carrying charges for the units will range from 350-500, which is affordable to extremely low-income households. During 2020, a member selection subcommittee of the cottage village coalition conducted outreach and interviews for the co-op's first members. In the fall of 2020, the first 8 members moved in and began board training with squareone staff.”

“Alternative shelter expansion: the covid-19 pandemic made clear the benefits of non-congregate shelter options for person experiencing homelessness. During 2020, the city of eugene and lane county began seeking organizations to expand these alternative shelter options to address the growing homelessness crisis in the community. Squareone worked with local government partners to plan and develop four additional alternative shelter sites. Development began in late 2020, with shelters opening to clients projected in january 2021. Two sites for adults experiencing homelessness will be able to accommodate a total of 12 households. Two sites for families with children experiencing homelessness will be able to accommodate a total of 9 households. C street cooperative: in partnership with cultivate place, in 2020 squareone began working on developing the c street cooperative in springfield, or. The project will consist of 6 on-bedroom units in a shared main house and accessory dwelling unit. The project is intended to demonstrate infill development of more dense housing in residential zoned areas. Construction and occupancy is projected to be complete by fall 2021. Squareone villages is developing legal documents, arranging financing, and securing subsidies for the project, which will be an lec-clt implementation of the village model that will be permanently affordable to low-income households. Consultation, and the village model: a major focus of squareone village's work has been to promote the development of permanently affordable housing cooperatives for low income households in lane county and other communities in the us. The village toolbox is a proprietary set of online resources for planning, developing, and operating an affordable tiny house village from concept to reality. The purpose of the toolbox is to help advocates mobilize a broad range of stakeholders in their own communities to create new shelter and housing options for low-income households. For groups who are further along in the development process, squareone villages offers consultation services to assist in a collaborative development process with democratic, resident-management as a core value. In addition, we have been developing a new set of resources to promote the village model, our approach to creating permanently affordable housing by developing limited- equity housing cooperatives on land owned by a community land trust dedicated for housing that is affordable in perpetuity. As a form of "shared equity" housing, this ownership and management model promotes community stability and puts low-income households in control of their housing. The resources we have developed are being used to educate local officials, advocates, lenders, service providers, and low-income households about this form of shared equity housing in order to scale-up the development of more permanently affordable housing projects that follow the village model.”