We fund what reduces homelessness — not what sustains it.
Portland spends roughly $35,000 a year per person on temporary pod shelter — and people still end up back on the street. Housing First works: real apartments with real support — for less than the pods cost. Knotty Roots is bringing that model to Portland. The math isn't complicated. We need the funding to build it.
Knotty Roots Initiative is the nonprofit that manages the property that gets people off the streets — permanently. It's being built by someone who's lived inside the old system for three years, to replace it with something that actually works.
Help build it“Without community, what do you got? A bunch of homeless folks dying from fetty ODs while neighbors are too scared to go out and help because nobody ever taught them how.”
Knotty Roots is being built by someone who has lived inside the homelessness system for three years — and watched it spend $35,000 a year per person to keep people homeless. This is the replacement: permanent housing, real jobs, and a community strong enough that nobody dies alone on the sidewalk.
At one point, 200 people lived in the city's tiny-home village. Now the city is kicking people out — not because they didn't do what they were supposed to do, but because they've been there too long. Three years at $95 a night is over $104,000 in taxpayer dollars per person — and the reward is getting booted to the street with all your stuff on the sidewalk, starting from zero. No happy endings. That's the system Knotty Roots replaces.
Permanent housing. Real work. Nobody power-tripping.
Permanent housing. Two rules.
A home you can't get kicked out of — not for being poor, not for struggling, not for how long you've been here. The only way out is violence or stealing from your neighbors, and cameras are everywhere on site, so you will get caught. Every resident can pull up the camera feeds from their own computer whenever they need to — view only, no editing. Total transparency, no secrets. An actual address, with a lease, for as long as you need it.
Jobs you can do with your dog.
Real work residents are able and motivated to do — cleaning, maintenance, and upkeep at the place they live, plus work in the neighborhoods around it — with your best friend right beside you.
Residents run the building.
House cleaners come through 3x a week, just like a motel — and the cleaners are residents. Same with maintenance. No outside org. Community service is mandatory — it's part of living here, in the building and the surrounding neighborhood. Higher access is earned by putting in the work.
In-house classes, real jobs.
When you're ready to move up in the world, we teach the classes for the job you want — you get certified, you get the job, and you keep living there. The ladder is inside the building.
Self-sustaining and green.
After initial capital, the model sustains itself and reinvests back into itself. Fully green operations. Money that works instead of money that burns.
Our own storefront.
A real store on the property — fresh produce, groceries, and everyday goods, the same kind of stuff Whole Foods and New Seasons sell. Staffed by residents, priced for the neighborhood, and every dollar it makes goes straight back into the housing. The store feeds the block and funds the mission at the same time.
Rule 1: no power tripping.
Everyone is equal. The people who've lived it make the decisions — not a boardroom that never has.
The road from here to the first property
Fiscal sponsorship
Operate under an existing 501(c)(3) so donations are tax-deductible from day one — $0 to start.
Oregon nonprofit + 501(c)(3)
File as an Oregon nonprofit corporation, then independent 501(c)(3) status via Form 1023-EZ.
Acquire the first property
Funded by donations and grants — housing money spent on housing, not pods.
Prove the model
Permanent housing + resident jobs + reinvestment, at lower cost than the pod system.
Expand
Every property funds the next one.
Knotty Roots Initiative is now forming.
We're pursuing fiscal sponsorship so donations can be tax-deductible from day one — then filing as an independent 501(c)(3) to acquire and manage our first property. Every dollar goes to housing, not pods.
Want to help build it? Get in touch.