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Once lacking basic power, Dignity Village now runs on solar energy thanks to community ingenuity, nonprofit support, and a PCEF grant – bringing safety, health, and hope to its formerly unhoused residents.
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Tents and tarmac and the roar of airplanes. That’s almost all Dignity Village had two decades ago when this collective of people who’d been camping in downtown Portland arrived at their new home – a paved piece of a city composting yard just west of the Portland airport.
With ingenuity and effort, the tents were transformed into tiny homes. The self-governing village became an inspirational model, offering one potential solution to a country’s growing struggle with homelessness. But over the years, a major problem remained – the lack of electricity for each of the village’s 43 households.
Now, with the support of the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) and the nonprofits Verde and Twende Solar, that powerless past has become a memory. After one final upgrade, the village has flipped the switch on donated solar panels and a new electric system, making residents safer and healthier for the next 20 years.
Critical energy needs
They are residents like Lisa Larson and Scott Layman, who moved into the village 14 years ago with the desire to help the group solve its critical energy needs. Their first dream: solar energy. The site had a single utility pole bringing power to a small central area, including the village guardhouse. The tarmac broils in heat waves and freezes when winter storms blast through the Columbia River Gorge. But because the city lease doesn’t allow villagers to penetrate the pavement, there was no simple way to enlarge the energy system.
Villagers came up with workarounds. Some people were using candles, Larson said, even though safety rules don’t permit open flames. Others charged car batteries once a week to power lights and small appliances. A few ran gas-powered generators, but those were polluting, noisy and expensive.
Households with medical needs, like oxygen and CPAP machines, ran extension cords over the tarmac – but that became a problem whenever a car or truck came through. Villagers developed a lift system made of old crutches, hoisting the extension cord network whenever a vehicle needed to pass.
Although most villagers safely use propane for heat, other propane-powered devices have a troubled history. Larson and Layman lost most of their belongings when a malfunctioning propane lantern exploded several years ago. In 2019, a leaky propane-powered refrigerator exploded, destroying one home and damaging its neighbors. The refrigerator’s owner was burned so badly that he had to be hospitalized.
Coming together to create solutions
Not long after the explosion, friends of the village reached out to nonprofits that could help. Verde, an environmental justice group, was already applying for a PCEF grant to build the Goodling Annex community solar installation near the airport; Twende Solar specializes in bringing renewable power to communities without electricity.
Verde’s project manager incorporated the village in its PCEF application. The plan fit PCEF’s mission to help all Portlanders – especially the most vulnerable – become more resilient in the face of climate change, said PCEF Clean Energy Project Manager Ricardo Moreno Gonzalez.
Getting started
The impenetrable tarmac posed a serious challenge. Working with an expert electrician and the city, Twende solved the problem by running rigid conduit from the utility pole to the edge of the village, Executive Director Robin Swanhuyser said. From there, new support posts carried the conduit around the village perimeter to each tiny home, where workers installed lights, outlets and smoke detectors.
In the summer of 2023, 80 volunteers helped villagers build their new green grid, installing donated solar panels on 32 village buildings. Although not every roof had the strength or the correct orientation to support panels, there were enough to create a shared 60-kilowatt system, Swanhuyser said. After the grid installation, grateful villagers hosted a cookout to thank the volunteers for making such a difference in their lives. Even before the solar operation came online, the availability of electric power from the utility made a huge difference.
Larson, current outreach coordinator and former chair of the village board, describes the thrill of getting home from work on a hot afternoon and feeling the breeze of an electric fan. Layman, former head of village security, remembers the first time he casually flicked on the light. “It was a great day,” he said.
As the weather cooled, Verde added an efficient heat pump system to the village’s community meeting space, called The Commons. The building used to fill with smoke in cold weather, when chilly residents piled logs in an aging wood stove. But as ice and snow froze Portland in January 2024, the new heat pump kept The Commons comfortable. During perilous days of record low temperatures, the village even hosted desperate overnight emergency visitors who had been trying to stay warm in cars and recreational vehicles.
“There’s a good chance that the electricity saved someone’s life,” said Ron White of Probity Builders, which worked with Verde on the project.
What’s next?
After final equipment upgrades, including a bi-directional meter, the new solar system was switched on by Pacific Power in June 2025. Although each home is only supplied with a small amount of power, the overall electric bill had quadrupled to about $1,200 a month. Twende covered the excess charges until the new system came online; the electricity generated by the panels is projected to cover the extra cost.
With this project, villagers have been able to savor things most people take for granted – a small refrigerator to cool food and medicine, a small microwave to heat meals, a place to charge a phone or plug in a medical device. Even when there are glitches – even on days that one of the new electric smoke detectors shrieks a false alarm – “we are ecstatic,” Layman said.