A Friendly Face
Jonathan Floyd-Versio is a friendly and familiar face around Community Vision’s office. He has been receiving support from three of Community Vision’s programs, including our Housing Access Program. The Housing Access team recently assisted Jonathan with moving into a new apartment.
Jonathan grew up in California and Oregon. He graduated from Gresham High School. He started living on his own when he was 19 years old. Not long after, he joined our Supported Living Program in 2014. The program offers individualized support to people with developmental disabilities so they can live self-directed lives. Jonathan receives assistance with activities such as getting out and being social, going grocery shopping, and managing finances.
In 2015, he joined the Employment Connections Program. This program assists with finding meaningful jobs for people with disabilities who want to work. The program’s job coaches offer support to the person so they can succeed.
Currently, Jonathan works at the Moda Center, which is where the Portland Trailblazers play and also where some big musical acts perform. He is part of the Guest Experience team.
Jonathan is a very outgoing and social person. It is important to him to make a lot of personal connections. His job coach says the Moda Center job is a great fit for him because every shift he interacts with a lot people, helping them find their seats and answering questions. He also gets to experience games and concerts while he works, which he loves. Recently he worked the Billie Eilish concert in early December. He told several people beforehand how excited he was for the event.
A New Home
Jonathan started working with the Housing Access Program when it began in 2020. He was living in a cramped studio apartment in a subsidized complex. The building was near Trader Joe’s, where Jonathan was working at the time. But, it had significant problems with pests and cleanliness. Jonathan also sometimes felt unsafe there and was unhappy.
Jonathan’s new home would need to be subsidized housing, where the rent would be based on his income. That meant joining long waitlists.
The Housing Access team worked with Jonathan to get him on several waitlists and let him know that it would likely be a couple years before he would get a new place. During that time, his work situation and housing needs changed. The team ended up doing multiple rounds of waitlist applications.
Finally, in the spring of 2024, Jonathan came to the top of two waitlists in the same week! He got to choose between a subsidized property in downtown Portland and a subsidized property in inner Northeast Portland. He ended up choosing the one downtown, due to the close-knit feeling of the community and the fact that the property manager lives in the building. Jonathan moved into his new place at the end of June.
A Fresh Start
“I really enjoy living here,” Jonathan says of his new one-bedroom apartment. “It feels like I’m at home.”
One of the things he likes is that it’s better for cooking. At his old studio apartment, his bed was right next to the kitchen, he explains. He didn’t like that. Now he frequently makes stuffed peppers, his favorite food, in his kitchen. There’s also lots of space in his living room for a couch, table, TV, and for his bookshelves filled with DVDs, games, photos, cards, books, and memorabilia.
Jonathan can take the green line or yellow line Max train to get to work. There is a stop just a few blocks from his apartment, and there’s a stop outside the Mode Center.
When we visited Jonathan at his new home in November, he gave us a tour of the building’s amenities, which include a ping-pong table, pool table, library, and big community room. He mentioned that the building manager is friendly and checks in on him when she sees him.
Moving in to a new apartment has been “a huge milestone for him,” according to Jonathan’s coordinator on the Supported Living team. “Jonathan has really embraced the independence and the new routine that comes with having his own space. It’s also allowed him to take more ownership over his living situation, which I think has been really empowering. He’s definitely been more engaged in making decisions for himself, and it seems like the change has boosted his confidence and overall well-being.”
Asked about his new apartment, Jonathan says, “It feels like a fresh start.”
