Dignity Village is a city-recognized encampment of an estimated 60 homeless

Homelessness

Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...

 people in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

In the days before Christmas of 2000, a group of homeless people in Portland succeeded in establishing a tent city

Tent City

A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents. Informal tent cities may be set up without authorization by homeless people or protesters. As well, state governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house refugees, evacuees, or soldiers...

 which garnered a great deal of both opposition and support, and quickly evolved from a group of self-described "outsiders" who practiced civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

, to a self-regulating, city-recognized "campground

Campsite

A campsite or camping pitch is a place used for overnight stay in the outdoors. In British English a campsite is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using tents or camper vans or caravans; this British English use of the word is synonymous with the...

" as defined by Portland city code.

Now featuring dedicated land near Portland International Airport, elected community officials and crude but functional cooking, social, electric, and sanitary facilities, Dignity Village got its start as a collection of tents and campers "squatting

Squatting

Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....

" illegally on unused public land near Downtown Portland

Downtown Portland

Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....

.

From confrontation to accommodation

Initially confronted by police for their unlicensed use of public land, the initial group of eight men and women had the benefit of a forceful voice in the person of homeless activist Jack Tafari

Jack Tafari

Jack Tafari , is a Rastafarian and an activist who has worked to improve the conditions of the homeless in the developed world. Tafari has devised and applied a system that harnesses Internet technologies, activism and traditional public relations techniques to advance the interests of the homeless...

, and the early support of a few local politicians and associated coverage in the local media. The Portland police department eventually realized that the group, then calling themselves Camp Dignity, was engaged in complicated Constitutional

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

 issues of redress of grievance, and deferred the political issue to the local political authority: The Portland City Council and Mayor.

Once established in the gray area of political speech, the fortunes of Dignity Village increased and picked up significant media coverage and popular support, but at the same time, they faced a compromise that the group found hard to swallow, having initially fought against.

Relocation

After well publicized convoys of homeless people pushing shopping cart

Shopping cart

A shopping cart is a cart supplied by a shop, especially supermarkets, for use by customers inside the shop for transport of merchandise to the check-out counter during shopping...

s migrated from one place to another to accommodate legal technicalities, the Portland City Council agreed on August 22, 2001 to let the group camp at a city lot called Sunderland Yard, some seven miles from downtown in the Sunderland

Sunderland, Portland, Oregon

Sunderland is a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Portland, Oregon.The Dignity Village homeless settlement is in Sunderland....

 neighborhood at 45.591398°N 122.636312°W. While Jack Tafari and the group vehemently resisted the location on grounds that it was too far from downtown, they eventually accepted the compromise as an acknowledgment of their legitimacy as a community.

Repeated attempts to shut down the campsite have been rebuffed by the Portland City Council, which has guaranteed the community's existence through at least 2010.

Organization

Dignity Village is incorporated in Oregon as a 501(c)(3) membership-based non-profit organization, and is governed by bylaw

Bylaw

By-law can refer to a law of local or limited application passed under the authority of a higher law specifying what things may be regulated by the by-law...

s and a board of directors with an elected

Elected

Elected is the latest EP by Dutch Progressive metal project Ayreon. It was released on April 25, 2008 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and on April 28 in the rest of Europe...

 chairman and other corporate officers.

Membership is by application review. Dignity Village states that membership is not limited "based on religion, race, sex, sexual orientation, handicap, age, lifestyle choice, previous (criminal) record or economic status."

Because past criminal convictions (including sex crimes) are not a negative criteria for membership, and because of dangers presented by continuing construction, children are not allowed to reside in the community.

Continued membership is dependent upon following the community's rules of behavior, contained in their membership agreement:

1. No violence toward yourself or others.
2. No illegal substances or alcohol or paraphernalia on the premises or within a one-block radius.
3. No stealing.
4. Everyone contributes to the upkeep and welfare of the village and works to become a productive member of the community.
5. No disruptive behavior of any kind that disturbs the general peace and welfare of the village.

Membership size varies and is limited by the physical size of the available space at the city yard site. As of June 22, 2008, 60 residents made their home at Dignity Village.

Housing

Designated by the Portland City Council as a transitional housing campground, Dignity Village falls under specific State of Oregon building codes governing campgrounds. This provides a legal zoning status. Lack of building codes has shut down many other shanty town/tent cities in the past. Housing in the Dignity Village community previously consisted of tents, hogan

Hogan

A hogan is the primary traditional home of the Navajo people. Other traditional structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house...

s, tee pees

Tipi

A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...

, light wooden shack

Shack

A shack is a type of small house, usually in a state of disrepair. The word may derive from the Nahuatl word xacalli or "adobe house" by way of Mexican Spanish xacal/jacal, which has the same meaning as "shack". It was a common usage among people of Mexican ancestry throughout the U.S...

s, or more substantial structures built using principles of ecofriendly green construction

Green building

Green building refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition...

 such as hay walls and recycled wood. Light clay

Light clay

Light clay is a natural building material used to infill between a wooden frame in a timber framed building using a combination of clay and straw, woodchips or some other lighter material....

 straw housing was also built in 2003 as part of the City Repair Project

City Repair Project

The City Repair Project is a 501 non profit organization based in Portland, Oregon. Its focus is education and activism for community building...

's Village Building Convergence

Village Building Convergence

The Village Building Convergence is an annual 10-day event held every May in Portland, Oregon, United States. The event is coordinated by the City Repair Project and consists of a series of workshops incorporating natural building and permaculture design at multiple sites around the city...

. As of 2009, all 50 individual/family structures at Dignity Village are code-compliant 10'x10' houses made of recycled materials.

Community services

Among the services offered by Dignity Village for their residents are:

• Showers
• Sanitary facilities
• Private and communal food and flower gardens
• Communal cooking and refrigeration facilities
• Emergency transportation
• Access to education
• Access to counseling
• Access to television (limited)
• Distribution of donated food, personal items and construction material
• Internet access
• Weekly community meetings
• On-site veterinary and medical care on a scheduled basis by volunteer doctors and nurses
• Access to prescription medication assistance
• Rudimentary first aid
• Access to telephone

Social and political

Dignity Village is aligned in general with the Green Movement

Green politics

Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...

 although as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, it cannot officially endorse specific parties or candidates. The site has been visited on numerous occasions by politicians from various political parties, and it enjoys a good amount of political support among city politicians and political candidates.

Dignity Village is an intentional community

Intentional community

An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They...

 which endorses or practices many socialist/communal principles.

Little information is currently available on police/fire/city service issues, although in 2004, the campsite was allowed to hook up to city sewers for the purpose of sanitary disposal of shower water. Toilet facilities are provided by portable toilet

Portable toilet

Portable toilet are simple portable enclosures containing a chemical toilet which are typically used as a temporary toilet for construction sites and large gatherings and events. Most of the portable toilets have black open-front-U-shaped toilet seat with cover...

s.

Media

In 2004, Kwamba Productions joined as Dignity Village's media partner. Since 2001, it has been working with Dignity Village collecting more than 500 hours of footage, photos, and archival papers while documenting the birth and development of the Dignity Village tent city.

External links

• Dignity Village - official (?) myspace page
• Official site