https://www.church-at-the-park.org/

Church at the Park, 2410 Turner Road SE, Salem, OR (2026)

08/26/2026

Photo Credit: Coral Women's House resident Julie

Myth: People have to "earn" their apartment — hit sobriety milestones, complete a program, or prove good behavior before they're allowed to stay housed.

Truth: Residency in Supportive Housing isn't contingent on behavior. People sign a standard lease and carry the same rights and responsibilities as any other renter. Services like counseling, healthcare access, and job support are offered — but they're voluntary, not conditions of staying housed.

This is often where people misunderstand Housing First. It doesn't mean "anything goes." People still have leases, rights, responsibilities, and expectations, just like any tenant. What changes is that we don't treat someone's challenges as evidence of whether they're worthy or unworthy of housing.

This distinction is the whole foundation of the model. Decades of work in this field have shown that people are far more likely to succeed in recovery, employment, and reconnecting with family once they have stable housing first, not after.

Most of us learned how to be good tenants while we already had a home. We learned to budget by overdrafting an account, navigate conflict with a neighbor, care for a space, communicate with a landlord, and recover from a hard season, all while still having somewhere to live. Supportive housing extends that same opportunity to people who may not have had that foundation.

Asking someone to solve addiction, trauma, or unemployment while still homeless is asking them to do the hardest work of their life with none of the stability the rest of us take for granted.

Supportive Housing flips that order. Housing isn't the reward for progress. It's the ground progress gets built on.

This is one of the models we lean on in our own work, and this week we're taking time to talk about why it matters, not just as policy, but as a real, dignified path for our neighbors. One of the biggest tensions in this work is learning that these things aren't opposites: we can believe people deserve dignity and still hold expectations. We can protect a community while continuing to walk alongside an individual. Holding both is what makes this model work.

08/25/2026

This week is Supportive Housing Week

"I don't live in Cascade Park anymore. I deserve to have nice things." A newer Coral House resident said this to us recently. The "nice things" she meant were a table - where she could sit, eat a meal, and set her own home. But getting a table meant letting go of some of the things she'd been holding onto, and that wasn't easy.

When someone has experienced homelessness, holding onto things can make sense. There are tenancy expectations that need to be addressed, and there is also a person whose relationship with belongings that have been shaped by the reality of living outside. Both things can be true at the same time. With support, clear goals, compassionate accountability, and people walking alongside her, this guest was eventually able to make room for that table along with a realization - a trusting of those around her, and a small claiming of someone saying, "I live here. This is my home. I deserve to have nice things."

Supportive housing means a real lease, with real terms, with someone's name on it. They pay rent. They have the same rights as any other tenant in our community.

What makes it "supportive" is what comes alongside that lease — but it's more than a list of services. At Coral House, support is also relationship: peer support, community, having people who know you, who notice when you're gone, who listen to you, celebrate your wins, help you set goals, and keep showing up when things get hard.

That's a huge part of what makes the word "supportive" actually mean something. There's no time limit and no requirement to prove you're "ready" before you're allowed to have a home. The home comes first, because stability is nearly impossible to build while you're still trying to survive without one. A stable home gives people a foundation from which they can work on everything else in their lives. Housing doesn't solve every challenge, but it creates the space and stability from which people find the capacity to navigate those challenges.

We'll be sharing more all week: what the need looks like locally and nationally, how this fits into the work we do every day, and how you can be part of it.

08/16/2026

Heaven Woods, Case Manager at the Young Adult Shelter, shares how someone’s willingness to see her potential helped change the course of her life, her family, and the way she now serves others.

"I connect with second-chance employment on a very deep level. I had struggled with addiction since I was 12 years old and was able to get clean in 2017 for three years. I had a molar pregnancy in 2021 and, unfortunately, tried to take my life by relapsing. I ended up sending myself into a year-and-a-half-long drug-induced psychosis that ended with me begging my lawyer to get me a deal rather than have my release hearing because I didn't want to go back out and live that way anymore.

I was desperate, so rather than be released and hope I made it to a bed opening at a treatment facility, I took a 31-month plea deal. I was incarcerated for 20 of those months, and when I was released, the first thing on my list was to get a job so I could support myself and my daughter again. The only luck I had was with part-time jobs. At one point, I had two of them until I found Church at the Park.

They gave me a chance, seeing beyond my background and truly seeing the human sitting in front of them and the potential she held. Being hired by Church at the Park and given that second chance meant getting to keep my daughter full-time. It meant paying off all of my fines and getting off parole six months early. It meant getting my own place and being able to support not only my daughter but now also my son. It meant me staying sober and achieving over 4 years of sobriety. It meant finding community and purpose in the past I carry with me.

I hope people are able to understand that change happens, that people have the free will to wake up one day and decide they don't want to live a certain way, or that they do want to live a certain way. Labeling people by their background or the mistakes they made in the past not only takes away their possible future potential, but it also takes away their chance to change, to do something different, and to be seen as the whole humans they are.

08/11/2026

Meet Rosa, Case Manager at our Family Shelter

Benedita, Manager at the Family Shelter, shared this about Rosa:

"Rosa is truly a core part of CCS. She is intentional in every relationship she builds with guests, staff, and community members, consistently going above and beyond to support participants in achieving their goals. Her guidance helps individuals navigate complex systems on their path toward self‑sufficiency, and her nurturing, caring personality brings a bright light to the site each day. Rosa supports all staff with kindness and reliability, and she creates a safe, welcoming space for children to play games or color in her office. We are genuinely grateful for all that Rosa does and the positive impact she brings to our community."

And here is what Elmarie, Chaplain at the site, shared:

"Rosa serves with a generous heart and welcoming smile! I see this by how comfortable the children at our site are in approaching her and by how empowered their parents are in seeking both housing and employment. Rosa is also a resourcer extraordinaire! Her love for researching new resource opportunities and networking with other community agencies is part of what allows her to support our guests in such a beautiful way. Thank you, Rosa, for the heart and energy you bring to your work every day!"

08/10/2026

Heaven, a Case Manager at our Young Adult Shelter, recently sat down with Margarito to hear his story. In his own words:

"My name is Margarito. I'm an outgoing person, a team player. I like it when my community is good with each other. I've been playing basketball since preschool. I'm a family person and love my family. I dropped out of high school and am working on getting my GED.

Life before moving into the YAS shelter was stressful and hard; I used in to live in a house and that ended in 2022 when we got kicked out for the rent going up. We had to pay our last month and left the house. Traveled to Grants Pass then O’Brien. Stayed there for two years. It was a blessing but was rough. We came back here in 2025; I chose to live on the streets and not be a burden in the car where my dad and my brother had been staying. My dad and I used to get into it a lot, due to egos. So, I stayed outside, I slept at the carousel downtown. I went to HOST and it took 5 and a half months and I was able to get into the Young Adult Shelter and it was a blessing.

At first it was rough — I was in my own world and on w**d. I looked around on site and saw a mirror, and I didn't want that for myself. I wanted to be clean so I'd be prepared when job opportunities came. I stopped in March 2026 and it changed me.

Staff and people around me saw good in me. Sonny (HYB Counselor) and I hadn't seen each other since 2018, back when I did drug and alcohol counseling with him at the Boys and Girls Club. On March 2nd, I gave all my w**d to Sonny to dispose of. I've now surpassed my longest clean time — 4 months.

Since being at YAS, I got my first job, joined the HOME Youth internship to work on my GED, set up a bank account, and completed a landscaping program. I'm getting well known in my community for doing positive things. You can't change everyone, but I want to show them that change is good.

C@P and HYB have changed me into a better person. I'm talkative now, eager to form connection, because good connection will get you somewhere — as long as you put yourself out there.

In the future, I want to own a business and help others in need. Even if it takes time. Go at your own pace."

08/04/2026

Gideon, one of the Case Managers at Village of Hope, shared this story—

In January 2026, Salvation Army was forced to close their Lighthouse Shelter, and many residents, including a man named Lee, moved into Village of Hope.

Lee arrived with a Section 8 Voucher, but it took about 5 months to find a qualifying apartment. Once approved, Lee couldn't afford the $1,000 deposit on his fixed income. He wrote this note to share with church partners:

"In October of 2024 I became homeless. Not due to drugs or alcohol or any criminal activity, but from a string of unfortunate events. I receive $603 a month from early retirement Social Security, and I receive food stamps. My family has all passed away except for a brother in Idaho. If it weren't for Church at the Park I couldn't have possibly gotten as far as I have in finding a home. Their efforts to help others at the Village of Hope are impressive, and a higher level than I encountered at two other shelters that I have stayed at. I always speak very highly of the people here, and I couldn't be more grateful."

Lee never gave up—even after a series of unfortunate events left him homeless for the first time with almost no support system. He kept searching until he found us.

Salem Housing, property managers, and community partners came together with Lee and Gideon to move him into his own place with no out-of-pocket costs for the first month, a restart package from Helping Hands (cleaning supplies, bedding, cooking essentials, utility items), and furniture delivered by Salem Alliance Furniture Bank.

Through this collaboration, Lee was back in stable housing for the first time in almost two years.

Seeing the relief wash over Lee when he was handed his keys and finally had his own place again is a memory I will not soon forget. Stories and experiences like this one are what make working in this field so rewarding. I thank Lee for allowing me to walk alongside him on this journey.

08/03/2026

Please join us!

WELCOME TO THE TABLE
Thursday, OCTOBER 15, 2026 - Mission Mill, Spinning Room
LUNCH - 12:00pm, DINNER - 7:00pm

Your presence helps us continue creating spaces where everyone is seen, valued, and welcomed. Together we will share stories that remind us that transformation is possible when we show up for one another.

We invite you to take your seat at the table to listen, to share, and to be part of a community working for a future where everyone belongs. We connect isolated people on sidewalks and in parks to needed resources and services. We create safe and supported shelter spaces leading to stability and positive transitions. We support the formation of people, jobs, and housing.

07/22/2026

At Village of Hope this week, a crew of CARECorps students from Isaac’s Room rolled up their sleeves to help make our outdoor spaces safer and more inviting for our guests and neighbors. Over their three-week service-learning camp, these high schoolers learn core ideas around service, leadership, and community impact, then spend time on sites like ours putting those lessons into practice.

Guided by their team leader Jade, the group focused first on the shared yard that’s part of the new Village of Hope expansion next to the Bike Barn—moving gravel, building up compost, and leveling the ground so guests using canes, walkers, and wheelchairs (and their pets) can actually gather, walk, and play there instead of just passing through. On a separate project two blocks down the street, they continued a “legacy” native planting on a city-owned riverbank property, returning for a second year to add w**d inhibitors, plant in a guild system, and ring each planting with nearby river rocks so future teams can easily see where plants should and shouldn’t be. The result is a densely planted, pocket-forest style space filled with native trees, Oregon iris, California poppies, strawberries, and other pollinator-friendly species that will grow into habitat for years to come.

We’re grateful for their partnership and the way they’re helping our Village of Hope micro-shelter community show up as good neighbors in central Salem. The skills, confidence, and experience they carry forward from CARECorps will ripple out through Salem for years—and the spaces they shaped will be used daily by the 80+ adults who call Village of Hope home.

If you’d like to hear directly from the students about the Village of Hope yard, the riverbank planting, and other projects across the city, join CARECorps Presentation Night on July 23, 2026, from 6:30–8:00 pm at the IKE Box, 299 Cottage St NE, Salem, OR 97301.

07/14/2026

We’re hiring a Chaplain to help shape a trauma‑informed, healing‑centered community at our Young Adult Shelter and Workforce Development Kitchen. In this role, you’ll offer spiritual and emotional support to guests, staff, and volunteers, creating spaces where young adults feel seen, safe, and genuinely welcomed.

As a C@P Chaplain, you’ll model our mission and values through relational presence, empathetic listening, and thoughtful collaboration with shelter and kitchen teams. You’ll also help weave spiritual care into staff development and daily practices that nurture dignity, resilience, and hope.

Explore this role—plus openings for a Navigation Manager, HR Generalist, and Safety Team members—at our jobs page: https://jobs.lever.co/churchatthepark.

07/09/2026

We’re grateful for our growing partnership with St. Joseph Knights of Columbus in Salem, who first connected with our Young Adult Site in 2024 and have continued to show up for our neighbors. On June 28, about 15 members and family spent the day with young adults—sharing shoes, clothing, hygiene supplies, fresh haircuts, tacos, watermelon, cold drinks, and a three‑point contest that ended with one of our young adult guests taking home the prize. As they put it, their hope was “to help restore confidence, strengthen community partnerships, and remind every person that they are seen, valued, and loved,” a vision that deeply aligns with how we want to tell the story of our community.

St. Joseph Knights of Columbus Council #6934 in Salem is a Catholic fraternal organization dedicated to serving their parish and the wider community through charity, unity, and service. You can learn more about the Knights of Columbus at www.kofc.org or follow this council on Instagram at .

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