Our Approach
Our work is about far more than affordable housing—it’s about shifting power and redefining how housing is imagined and led. Envision centers people with lived experience of homelessness as designers, decision-makers, and leaders, not just residents. By embedding our community model within existing affordable housing, we are demonstrating a scalable, lived-experience-driven approach that advances dignity, belonging, and long-term stability.
At its core, Envision challenges societal assumptions about homelessness and elevates the voices and leadership of those who have experienced it, moving toward equity in practice, policy, and everyday community life.
Co-Designed & Co-Led By Residents
Envision is unique. Our model aims to fill a critical gap in the journey of those exiting homelessness.
Our programming fills a “missing middle” in the housing system—creating a small-scale, relationship-centered model embedded within existing affordable housing.
It bridges the gap between crisis services and long-term independent housing, offering community, connection, and shared leadership in between. Here, people with lived experience are not only residents; they are designers, problem-solvers, and decision-makers shaping a model rooted in dignity, belonging, and collective success.
Intentional Community
Envision a place where the conditions for social connectedness are considered as integral to healing as the structures that offer solitude, safety and support.
Shared Support & Shared Spaces
Why is a new type of housing needed?
Traditional “affordable housing” still leaves many people behind. For individuals emerging from homelessness, extremely low income, disability benefits, or recovery, many still struggle with isolation and other barriers to long-term stability and improved health.
This creates an opportunity for greater community within housing developments. Envision exists to fill that gap. By embedding intentional community within existing affordable housing, we offer a model where adults can access shared support, dignity, and peer leadership.
This approach suggests that stability and belonging can grow from community, not just bricks and mortar.
Continuous Improvement of Envision
Our plans include a rigorous study of Envision during our pilot project so that we can learn from our experience and continuously improve Envision through frequent iteration.