Deschutes County may get a temporary outdoor shelter for people experiencing houselessness. Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, in partnership with the Coordinated Houseless Response Office, is looking for a qualified entity to design, develop and operate temporary shelter sites in Deschutes County.
The shelters will run year-round, ensuring a safe location for individuals and families to reside, according to the Request for Qualifications. The sites will also offer resources to families and individuals in order to help them transition out of houselessness.
COIC and CHRO will work with public partners including the cities of Bend and Redmond, Deschutes County, the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Transportation and Bend Park and Recreation District.
The funding source for payments of any contract resulting from the process will be from a combination of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, along with state and local dollars.
The CHRO Board’s goal is expanding immediate sheltering options to accommodate 30% of Deschutes County’s unsheltered population. The RFQ includes a list of publicly-owned properties in Deschutes County that public agencies have identified as possible sites.
This solicitation is the beginning of a multi-step process which will focus on public engagement, transparency and partnership. The deadline for submitting the qualification statements is March 26. Qualified developers and operators who submit an RFQ may then be invited to present a proposal.
Once proposals have been reviewed, a public agency will enter into a contractual agreement with an entity to develop a site or sites and support operations. According to the RFQ, multiple agreements may be entered with different applicants on different sites, based on the content of proposals and available funding.
The process includes a public engagement commitment, ensuring the process creates opportunities to hear from potential residents and neighbors of projects in development.
This article appears in Source Weekly March 21, 2024.
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Once again, the planning focuses on the Eastside of the city for this services. Pull up the list of publicly-owned properties in Deschutes County that are considered “Tier 1” for this type operation and almost all are on East Side (a number with NW addresses are parking lots in downtown Bend that would never be actually considered). The site at 222 NW Skyliner Summit Loop is the largest site at about 35 acres and would provide the best economies of scale, but would never be considered despite a small about of remediation to level the site (just like any other site would require in NE Bend). As this is planned to be a temporary operation, why is there not focus on the OSU-Cascades land already owned by the State and siting empty. There is 128 acres on the OSU-C footprint with only 24 acres of land in use. The State could easily provide remediation for about 20 acres to be used as temporary housing that later could be converted to OSU expansion plans when the temporary housing is no longer needed. Or is the use of “temporary housing” just a smokescreen to try to slip into a NE Bend location that never closes?