St. Francis Affordable Housing Development Visioning

Portland, OR | 2021

Like many cities across the U.S., Portland’s housing and homelessness crisis has sparked tensions between the agencies in neighborhoods that provide critical housing and services to houseless individuals and the surrounding residents and businesses.

Cascadia Partners facilitated a visioning process for a permanent supportive housing development that helps address challenges facing unhoused people and address concerns from neighborhood residents and businesses in a dense and mixed use district in Portland. This process included facilitating an advisory committee with diverse representatives including residents, businesses, service providers, mental health advocates, and developers. We also facilitated focus groups with affordable housing residents, houseless individuals, and property and business owners to understand barriers and needs for providing stable housing and on-site health and wellness services.

The primary goal for future development is to provide greater access to permanent supportive housing that integrates health and wellness and on-site services serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness.

1. Identify key values and potential long-term uses and services that reflect stakeholder values and align with Catholic Charities’ Healthy Housing Initiative; and
2. Center the challenges and needs of the people experiencing homelessness in the engagement process and divisions regarding potential new development.

This initial site-specific visioning process helped to inform a broader community visioning process, strengthen relationships with the surrounding neighborhood, and provide steps for Catholic Charities to move forward on programmatic uses for the development.

Now called Francis + Clare Place, the development broke ground in September 2023 and will provide 61 units of affordable Permanent Supportive Housing with culturally responsive services provide by Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA) and AfroVillage.