Please Welcome Our Community Relations Director

Hello supporters,

I’m thrilled for the opportunity to get to know all of you and am looking forward to helping propel this important work forward! During my first few weeks on the job, it’s apparent how many incredibly passionate people we have working together to fulfill our mission – staff, volunteers, and community members of all kinds. I’m grateful to be standing with giants.

Working for our local United Way over the last two years has provided me with significant insight into our housing crisis and the people it affects. We need a new system and new ways of looking at our housing options. This is exactly why I believe so profoundly in SquareOne Villages’ model and am dedicated to strengthening and sharing it more broadly.

For the people we serve, these houses are often the difference between life and death, an opportunity for a new future and social capital that can change the trajectory of their lives forever. That’s the kind of impact that can happen when we come together to build affordable housing in a way that’s different (and less expensive) than what’s been done before.

I believe strongly that tiny houses and tiny house villages are one significant piece of a solution to the very complicated crisis we are in, and we are just scratching the surface. Smaller, diverse houses and organized community structures of many sorts will be an important way forward.

Back in 2014 and 2015, I was desperately looking for a way to be able to live and support a family while having a disabling condition, something that seemed impossible at the time. In 2016 my spouse and I began building our tiny house. Not only did this journey transform my health, but it continues to allow me to support my family in many ways, and it offers the ability to contribute significantly to my community.

Creating avenues to allow people to support themselves with limited means, different physical/mental capabilities, and challenging pasts has unprecedented effects on their health and wellbeing, who they know themselves to be and always contributes substantially back to the community around them. Reaching people in rural areas here in Oregon, given the rural health and income disparities, is an important next step. I’m eager to get Cottage Village, our next affordable housing community, up and running and continuing to expand our reach!

Thank you for supporting our work.

Amanda Dellinger