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Salmonberry
Village Assets
What is Salmonberry Village?
Salmonberry Village Assets is developing a community-led pathway for land, housing, infrastructure, and long-term belonging.
We bring together community knowledge, land access, financing, infrastructure, partnerships and policy to explore housing pathways rooted in culture, belonging, self-determination, and community well-being.
Housing is more than a shelter.
It's connection to land, culture, community and home.
Salmonberry Village Assets is beginning to work in Whatcom County, Washington, USA, where housing affordability, land access, infrastructure, displacement, and the ability of indigenous families to remain connected to home are increasingly interconnected. One first phase focuses on community listening, feasibility, land and infrastructure pathways, and partnerships that can help create culturally rooted housing opportunities near Tribal Communities.
We are starting in Whatcom County. Designed to grow beyond one place.
WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
The work is moving from vision to action.
Right now, Salmonberry Village is listening to community, exploring land and housing pathways, mapping partnerships and infrastructure, and developing a culturally grounded model that can grow beyond one place.
01 LISTEN
Gathering community priorities, experiences, needs, and hopes for the future.
02 MAP
Understanding land, infrastructure, financing, policy, and partnership opportunities.
03 BUILD THE
PATHWAY
Exploring feasible models for community-rooted housing and land access.
04 CREATE A
BLUEPRINT
Developing tools and resources that communities can adapt to their own places.
Where are we on the journey?
Vision
Community Listening
Feasibility
Land
+ Partnership
Pilot
Model
SVA is currently focused on community listening through a housing coalition called H.E.R. Housing, Equity, and Resilience; feasibility, partnership development, and identifying viable pathways forward.
JOIN US IN
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Housing is not just shelter.
It is safety. Belonging. Health. Continuity.
It is environmental justice.
A housing crisis rooted in injustice
Across the region, Indigenous and BIPOC families face long waitlists, rising costs, and limited access to land and capital—often in the very places their families have stewarded for generations.
Home is a homeland issue
There is something deeply wrong when first peoples cannot afford to live, grow, and remain in their own homelands. Housing is inseparable from cultural survival and self-determination.
Generational wealth has been systematically blocked
Resources exist—but access to financing, land, infrastructure, and policy pathways has been intentionally restricted. This work is about redesigning those pathways.
How the Work Happens
Salmonberry Village Assets follows a just transition approach—moving from extraction to regeneration, from exclusion to access.
Community Needs Assessment
Listening first. Centering lived experience, culture, and place.
Feasibility & Land Pathways
Exploring land access, infrastructure realities, and development options that align with community values.
Partnership & Infrastructure Mapping
Identifying who, what, and where systems currently fail—and how they can be redesigned.
Pilot Housing Pathway Model
Developing a replicable, culturally grounded model that others can adapt and use.
Spring Growth
Salmonberry buds
emerge in spring.
Blooming
The plant blooms with delicate
Homecoming
The salmon hears the song and returns home to its ancestral waters.
Salmonberry
Ecosystem
Joyful Song
The hummingbird sings with joy sharing the news.
Nectar Feast
A hummingbird sips tha sweet nectar from the flower.
Nothing grows alone.
Salmonberry grows within an ecosystem of relationships—land, water, people, pollinators, food, culture, and care. Salmonberry Village follows the same principle.
VALUES THAT GUIDE EVERYTHING
Culture & Safety
Housing must honor cultural practices, family structures, and collective care.
Community Connection
We design for belonging—not isolation.
Stewardship & Responsibility
Family-based, place-based accountability over extractive development.
Generational Growth & Self-Sovereignty
Building pathways that serve future generations, not just short-term outcomes.
This work is relational.
There are many ways to engage.
Community & Relatives
Share your experiences and help shape what’s built.
Partners
Bring your expertise, land, resources, or collaboration.
Supporters
Help resource the feasibility and blueprint-building phase.