Social Housing: A model for healthy, resilient and thriving communities

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Social housing is moving from idea to reality in the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle's public developer has acquired its first building; Portland is asking what permanently affordable, mixed-income neighborhoods could mean here. These models require a generational mindset, encouraging a built environment designed for social cohesion and shared resilience. Social infrastructure and high-performance buildings are equally central to long-term tenancy — the courtyards, kitchens, and everyday points of contact allow neighbors to actually become neighbors while the buildings themselves convey stability and dignity.

This panel with Helmi Hisserich (Social Housing Strategies), Carly Harrison (Albina Vision Trust), City Councilor and economist Mitch Green, and Brian Squillace (Bora Architecture & Interiors) brings together policy, community development, design, and economics to ask how each might be re-thought under a social housing model — and what that could mean for Portlanders.