Bend Weighs in on Homelessness | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Bend Weighs in on Homelessness

How would you solve the homeless crisis?


Samantha Mooney


“Most of Bend right now does not have a lot of money, so there’s really nothing we can do ourselves. I think we need to approach the government. We can say, ‘Here’s what’s happening in Bend, Oregon’. Depending on the person, if you can mentally have a job and maintain it, then I think you should go for it. But, with that, try and give them a chance and give them a job at some little fast food place and give them some money.”


Timothy Conlon

“I’ve had some experience as a volunteer so I need to know, where’s our baseline right now? Every homeless person is different. They are not homogeneous. I was a reporter in San Francisco years ago during the dot-com boom. If you want to talk about serious homelessness, look at San Francisco. They’ve been working on that problem for thirty years, at a huge expense, at a huge transactional cost. I don’t think it’s any closer to a solution than it was twenty years ago, and there’s a reason for that."




Luke Wayne




“I’m not really sure. I’m in high school right now, just going through, I’m not really sure how to solve it right now. I feel like affordable housing would be nice so that everybody can have a home and not be living on the streets.”





Ragnar Sigurdsson





“Well, I mean, offer them more jobs. Offer them more opportunities in the job market.”







Marcia Gilmore

“Now that is a question that’s humungous. Gosh. There’s so many facets to it. Part of homelessness is that people won’t go into the facilities because there are restrictions, so I don’t know how to solve it. I think we need to work on it. That’s a huge one.”


Steve

“I would develop more affordable housing. I think everything has a shot. More money, more affordable housing, more health issues. Not just mental health, they’ve got physical issues I’m sure. But mental health would certainly be it, particularly for the PTSD guys out there.”



Randy Cook



“I’d say put some money towards vocational training. Have them start building out homes and furniture and stuff for themselves and have them build their way up and have the community’s and private funding for it. And send them on their way with some skills and it wouldn’t cost as much liability.”




Dylan Jones




“Let them hunt the geese. Let ‘em eat the geese, they’re all over the place. Two birds one stone. Seriously, though we need more social programs. More grassroots stuff.”





Christian Hopkins



"I guess more areas to put homeless people and job related issues. You have to get on your feet before you get a home.”











Comments (2)
Add a Comment
For info on print and digital advertising, >> Click Here