Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) for Affordable Housing
What is ABCD?
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is a framework that drives sustainable change by identifying and leveraging the existing strengths, skills, relationships, and resources within a community. Unlike traditional development models that define places by what they lack, ABCD views residents not as passive recipients of aid, but as essential, active participants in shaping their own neighborhoods. At its core, ABCD rests on three interconnected principles:
Asset-Based: Grounded in individual talents, local organizations, and informal community networks.
Internally Focused: Driven by the priorities and decisions of community members themselves.
Relationship-Driven: Dependent on strong, trusting connections between people and local organizations.
Applying ABCD to Affordable Housing
The Center for Public Interest Design (CPID) brings years of experience in affordable housing advocacy, research, and design. Today, we are applying the ABCD framework to create more impactful, resident-centered housing models. By leveraging community-identified assets, our approach ensures that affordable housing:
Sustains Residents: Tailors physical space and programming to support residents' daily needs, well-being, and long-term vitality.
Enriches the Neighborhood: Connects housing developments to the surrounding area, transforming affordable housing into a valuable community asset that integrates naturally into the existing neighborhood context.
Through this model, CPID collaborates with developers, designers, service providers, residents, and local stakeholders to design spaces that serve both the immediate residents and the broader public interest.
Sharing What We Learned
CPID has applied and adapted ABCD across affordable housing developments in diverse communities, learning through practice what helps agency and connection take root.
We are making this knowledge openly available so that other practitioners can explore, adapt, and build on the approach. Here you will find resources that introduce the ABCD framework, share tools and methods for applying it, and document projects where CPID has put the framework into practice.
Learn about ABCD
Building Together
An Asset-Based Community Development Guidebook for Affordable Housing Design, Development and Operations
Building Together translates CPID’s field experience into a practical roadmap for housing developers, designers, and operational teams. This guidebook provides actionable tools for asset mapping and community engagement, to integrate resident knowledge, relationships, and leadership into every stage of a project, from early design through long-term operations.
What You’ll Find:
How to shift from passive public feedback to active, shared learning and decision-making.
Strategies to make lived experience visible, actionable, and accountable within institutional planning processes.
Practical methods for embedding community assets into design, programming and daily resident life.
Tools for Engagement
A Practical Toolkit for Meaningful Community Participation
A field-ready companion to Building Together, this toolkit provides modular, step-by-step activities for facilitating genuine community participation. Flexible and non-linear, it allows practitioners to immediately deploy the right exercise for their specific engagement goals—from initial listening sessions to collaborative design workshops.
ABCD in Practice
The projects below document the evolution of CPID's Asset-Based Community Development practice across affordable housing communities in Oregon and beyond. Each report captures a specific collaboration with housing partners, designers, service providers, community organizations, and residents. Together, they illustrate how the approach has been adapted to different places, project types, and stages of the housing lifecycle, while contributing to the methods and lessons presented in Building Together.
Explore individual projects to learn more and download the complete reports.
Fremont Asset-Based Community Development
Location: Fremont, CA
Partners: Community Development Partners (CDP), AO Architects, Project Access
Year: 2025
Fremont Blvd is a 92-unit affordable housing development and CDP’s first project in the city, envisioned as an intergenerational and intercultural community in one of the most ethnically diverse regions of the United States. The project seeks to connect affordable housing with the broader community through inclusive design, shared spaces, and culturally responsive programming that support long-term resident well-being.
CPID supported the project as a research and community engagement partner, applying the ABCD approach to identify local strengths, organizations, services, and cultural resources that could inform the development. Through interviews, site visits, and a community gathering, CPID gathered local knowledge around transportation, food access, healthcare, and opportunities for social connection. These insights informed recommendations for shared-space activation and programming, helping shape a housing community grounded in local relationships and the lived experiences of Fremont residents.
5733 MLK Engagement and Envisioning
Location: Portland, OR (MLK Boulevard)
Partners: Our Streets, Danco Group, Verditas
Year: 2024
5733 MLK is an affordable workforce housing development led by Our Streets, a BIPOC-led Portland nonprofit focused on food access, community empowerment, and social and environmental justice. Located along a major transit corridor in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, the project aims to transform an underutilized site into an affordable, connected, and community-oriented housing development.
CPID supported the project through an early Asset-Based Community Development process focused on relationship-building, identifying cultural and community stakeholders, and gathering local knowledge. Engagement activities in June and July 2024 also explored temporary uses for the site, creating opportunities to introduce the project to the surrounding community before construction.
Salem-Gateway Asset-Based Community Development
Location: Salem, OR (Gateway Neighborhood)
Partners: Community Development Partners (CDP), Scott Edwards Architecture, PLACE Architecture, EngAGE Northwest
Year: 2021
Salem-Gateway is an intergenerational affordable housing development designed to support low-income families and seniors while strengthening connections between residents, the surrounding community, and the natural environment. The project is rooted in a unique site history: the property had been owned and cared for for decades by longtime environmentalist John Miller, whose stewardship shaped the neighborhood’s relationship with native plants, ecological preservation, and nearby wetlands.
CPID applied the ABCD and Community for All Ages frameworks through a months-long engagement process, including 20+ interviews with local organizations and residents. Community knowledge informed both design and programming, with particular attention to preserving the site’s environmental character and strengthening connections between the future housing community and its surrounding ecological and social assets.
Timber Ridge
Location: La Grande, OR
Partners: Northeast Oregon Housing Authority (NEOHA), Portland State University Center for Public Interest Design (CPID)
Year: 2021
Timber Ridge was developed in response to the need for affordable housing and supportive services for low-income individuals and families in La Grande, with a particular focus on creating an inclusive, intergenerational community. NEOHA convened a local working group to explore how community services, partnerships, and resources could support the future development.
CPID worked with a broad range of stakeholders to inform the project’s design, services, and programming. The resulting recommendations aimed to create a meaningful community for residents across generations, connecting housing with the broader network of services and relationships in La Grande. In August 2021, Timber Ridge received an Oregon Public Housing Award recognizing housing development east of the Cascades.
St. Helens Asset-Based Community Development
Location: St. Helens, OR
Partners: Northwest Oregon Housing Authority (NOHA), EngAGE,
Year: 2021
St. Helens is an intergenerational affordable housing project developed in response to the need for more inclusive services and housing opportunities for low-income individuals and families, particularly within communities of color. From the outset, the project brought together housing, service, and community partners to envision the physical development and the social infrastructure needed to support a thriving community.
CPID supported the Goble Road Apartments Collaboration through an Asset-Based Community Development process, working with service providers, community organizations, and prospective resident communities to identify existing assets, relationships, and opportunities for collaboration. The process informed the development of a comprehensive resident services approach designed to connect future residents with resources already present in the broader community, while supporting a Community for All Ages model.
Maple Lane Asset-Based Community Development
Location: Oregon City, OR
Partners: Community Development Partners (CDP), Hacienda CDC, Salazar Architecture, PLACE Design
Year: 2020
Maple Lane is a Community for All Ages development designed to provide affordable housing and wraparound services for households with limited incomes, while strengthening connections to the broader Oregon City community. The project brings together housing, resident services, and community partnerships to support positive long-term outcomes for residents.
CPID led an Asset-Based Community Development process that engaged both local community assets and the future resident populations the development intended to serve. Through meetings with service providers, community organizations, and prospective residents, the process identified existing strengths and opportunities that could inform the project before construction. Hacienda will continue as the on-site service provider, creating continuity between pre-development engagement and the long-term life of the community.
525 North Capitol Avenue
Location: San Jose, CA
Partners: Community Development Partners (CDP), David Baker Architects, CivicMakers, Veggielution
Year: 2020
525 North Capitol Avenue responds to San Jose’s housing crisis by bringing together affordable housing for families experiencing housing insecurity, chronically homeless veterans, low-income seniors, and people with disabilities. Envisioned as an intergenerational community, the development places particular emphasis on shared spaces and connections to the surrounding neighborhood.
CPID led the ABCD process in collaboration with local partner CivicMakers, whose knowledge of San Jose strengthened community engagement and asset mapping. The process helped identify opportunities to connect the development with existing neighborhood resources, including a partnership with Veggielution to activate ground-floor commercial space through food access and job training.
Cascadian Terrace
Location: Portland, OR
Partners: Community Development Partners (CDP), Salazar Architect, EngAGE/Friendly House, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health
Year: 2018
Cascadian Terrace is a rehabilitation project focused on strengthening an existing affordable housing community through improvements to shared spaces, programming, and connections to neighborhood resources. Following CDP’s acquisition of the property in 2015, CPID was invited to use an Asset-Based Community Development approach to engage residents and the surrounding neighborhood in shaping the scope of the renovation.
CPID’s research and engagement process identified opportunities to activate underused spaces, strengthen community identity, and connect housing with food security, health, and wellness resources. The resulting recommendations contributed to a community kitchen, gardens, and new programming, while creating stronger pathways between residents and local services. Rather than treating rehabilitation as a physical upgrade alone, ABCD positioned the existing community as a source of knowledge and assets for shaping the future of the site.
Tigard Triangle
Location: Tigard, OR
Partners: Community Development Partners (CDP), Cornerstore Community Housing
Year: 2019
The Tigard Triangle project was developed in response to the need for accessible and inclusive affordable housing alongside the rapid growth and planned transit expansion of the area. The proposed 80-unit development sought to support low-income residents and veterans experiencing homelessness while contributing to the broader community infrastructure of the Tigard Triangle.
CPID led an Asset-Based Community Development process that engaged residents, community stakeholders, and service organizations to understand local assets, needs, and opportunities. The research focused on three interconnected pillars of healthy communities: community building, sustainability, and transit-oriented development. Findings from community dialogue, organizational outreach, and demographic research informed policy and design recommendations aimed at creating a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood where access to transit, green space, and community resources could support both resident wellbeing and broader neighborhood investment.
Rockwood 10
Location: Gresham, OR (Rockwood Neighborhood) Partners: Community Development Partners (CDP), Hacienda CDC, Waechter Architecture, PLACE Design Year: 2018
Rockwood Village addresses the critical need for accessible, family-sized housing in Oregon’s most culturally diverse neighborhood. Positioned at the intersection of Gresham and Portland, the development was envisioned as a transit-oriented, community-building asset that integrates sustainable housing with the broader social and physical infrastructure of the surrounding town center.
CPID led the Asset-Based Community Development process, utilizing student-led interviews and community research to ensure resident priorities directly shaped the design and programming. Rather than isolating the development, ABCD informed key shared amenities: a central community center co-operated with Hacienda CDC, public gardens designed by PLACE Design, and a dedicated native forest preserve protecting a cherished local tree grove, creating a lasting asset for both residents and the wider neighborhood.