About Us

FHDC believes a home is just the beginning

 

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Farmworker Housing Development Corporation is a community-based non-profit organization dedicated to serving mid-Willamette Valley families. FHDC was established in 1990 when Oregon Legal Services, Salud Medical Center, PCUN (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United), Farmworker Ministries, and a number of individuals joined forces to establish a single agency for the development of affordable housing for low-income farmworkers. While we still have a strong presence in the farmworking community, our services and housing has expanded into workforce housing to meet the needs of our changing communities and the crisis of meeting the needs across the board to build enough stable, safe and affordable housing in Oregon.

In 1992 FHDC started the development of our first housing project, Nuevo Amanecer, Phase I, amid fierce opposition from some community leaders who preferred to see farmworkers segregated in remote labor camps. Governor Barbara Roberts was instrumental in overcoming this opposition and making this project happen and has continued to support FHDC’s efforts. We opened the doors of Nuevo Amanecer to 50 families in 1994.

25 years later, with the addition of our latest development Colonia Jardines in Silverton, we now provide housing to nearly 1,300 individuals in six cities (Woodburn, Salem, Stayton, Silverton, Sublimity and Independence, Oregon). We are currently in the process of building Colonia Unidad in Woodburn, a workforce housing project,  to support a changing community to increase career mobility and opportunities for advancement for farmworkers and other low-income individuals and families.