Our Purpose

Who We Are

We are an alliance of organizations and individuals working collectively across sectors to achieve SHELTER NOW. We’re learning, organizing, and building power and visibility to effectively advocate for diverse housing solutions for diverse community needs. 

Our Core Team, representing business, community-based organizations, service providers, neighborhoods, and people with lived experience of houselessness, serves as the coordinating body, providing governance, strategy, and advocacy leadership. Action Teams are engaged in multiple public initiatives and opportunities to advance solutions.

Why We Exist

Shelter Now’s mission is to center and meet the needs of those who are unhoused by increasing alternative shelter and village options NOW to ensure a safe and decent place for everyone to rest, secure their belongings, and find community.

We will:

• Center on the needs and voices of those with living and lived experience

• Prioritize culturally-specific, BIPOC-centered efforts

• Improve both the quantity and quality of alternative shelters and villages throughout our community

• Support self-determination for both the management of the alternative shelters and villages and their individual residents

Who we serve

We serve the houseless* population of Multnomah County, comprised of at least 5000 people, with Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, and other marginalized communities disproportionately represented in this population. 

We also recognize the need to develop broad-based support for alternative shelter among the housed community, build hope that meaningful change is at hand, and foster a culture of community care where neighbors help neighbors.

*The term houseless includes both unsheltered and sheltered living situations.