The goal is companionship through community.
Redmond’s new Bridge Meadows affordable housing complex off Hemlock Avenue opened Friday, offering tours to anyone who stopped by.
But the development, and its 36 residential units, are intended to serve specific groups of people.
“Bridge Meadows creates intergenerational communities for a really special purpose,” Dr. Derenda Schubert, Bridge Meadows executive director said. “Our purpose is to support children who have experienced foster care, their forever families, and elders.”
Bridge Meadows began in the Portland-metro area a decade ago, and its new Redmond development marks the third location serving as an alternative to foster care.
150 people currently live in a Bridge Meadows community, soon to be 230 when residents move into the Redmond complex.
“We have 10 townhouses for our families,” Schubert said. “They are three and four bedrooms so that siblings can stay together, it is so important that the siblings stay together. And then the elders have one and two bedroom apartments in a building adjacent to the family homes.”
Amenities include counseling, recreational services, a community building, and a large courtyard.
But as Bridge Meadows has seen in its two Portland locations, bonds between residents seem to be the best parts of living here.
“The elders benefit because they have time, and they have the treasures of their wisdom, and their care about children, and they really have a reason to get up in the morning,” Schubert said. “Children who have lived at Bridge Meadows communities are going to school on a regular basis, they feel strong and resilient, and the parents do as well.”
Redmond residents will begin moving in mid-November.
