Stephanie Sater lives on Clausen Road in a broken-down trailer with her fiancé and their dog, Nova. She hopes that the City of Bend doesn’t take away their home.
“This is all we have, right here,” Sater told the Source Weekly, pointing to her truck and trailer. While their truck does work, it’s not reliable nor in good condition. Even if their truck could haul the trailer, she said, they’ll have nowhere to actually put it.
On Tuesday morning, July 18, the City of Bend started clearing out the area of Hunnell and Clausen Roads, one of Bend’s largest encampments for people experiencing homelessness. In late June, the City informed residents of Hunnell Road that they would have to vacate the area by the end of the day on July 17, so that the City could start removing the encampment the morning of July 18.
In December, the City announced its plans to clear Hunnell Road to make way for an Oregon Department of Transportation project. In the same announcement, the City declared the area of Northeast Hunnell Road an “unsafe campsite.” This news came after an assessment of the area’s conditions that took place Aug. 15 through Nov. 15.
A long-planned removal
The City announced that the closure would occur in March of 2023. However, on March 1, City Manager Eric King stated that the plan to sweep Hunnell Road would be postponed. The camp removal was no longer necessary for the ODOT road construction, officials said.
In addition, the City attempted to partner with Deschutes County to create a managed camp in south Bend. The project, however, fell apart after the County backed out due to concerns from neighboring residents and doubts about its ability to operate on a $100,000 budget.
The originally proposed sweep would’ve coincided with the commencement of the City’s camping code, a regulatory strategy to address homelessness. The code regulates when, where and how people may camp, restricting campsites to 24-hour stays in specific portions of the city.
Hunnell was the only exception to the code, which is enforced everywhere else in the city. Last month, the City told people living at Hunnel Road about the decision to sweep on July 17. Around the same time, the County announced it expected to clear Juniper Ridge in northeast Bend.
While many people were forced to vacate the Hunnell area, over 20 others who requested accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act will have one additional week, according to a press release from the City. Some people who were still in the area Tuesday morning were awaiting accommodation decisions, hoping to have more time to move.
At 8am on Tuesday, Sater was in the process of getting last-minute accommodations. According to Sater, people weren’t really informed about what’s going to happen Tuesday with the sweep. She’s hoping that they can get the accommodations to have more time to figure out where and how they can move their home. “Seven days would definitely help,” she said. Still, she’s nervous and scared about what’s to come.
“It’s going to be a scramble,” said Chuck Hemingway, an advocate for homeless individuals and the Program Manager at Central Oregon Villages. He worries that people with accommodations will lose time with service providers over the next few days. “We’ve got to wait for the City to clear all those people out,” said Hemingway. “Then we can go in and try to start talking with folks that were given a week.”
An effort to stop camp removals
Although the sweep got underway as planned Tuesday, the looming closure came with pushback from Hunnell residents and community members. Hunnell residents Myntora Aguilar, Nicholas Schindler and Michelle Hester, along with service provider Hemingway, filed an injunction against the city.
The injunction, filed on July 12, asked for an emergency hearing to address the pending reasonable accommodation requests by plaintiffs and other disabled individuals. On Friday, July 14, Judge Wells Ashby held an emergency hearing to discuss the issue at hand. Plaintiffs pleaded with the court, saying they needed more time.
Michelle Hester claims the City lied about camp removals.
“The mayor said that Hunnell and Clausen would not be moved until they have a place for us to go. They don’t have a place for us to go; there’s nowhere for us to go,” Hester said in court.
Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler responded to the allegation. “Statements made in court today accusing me of making certain promises in writing and of therefore lying to the residents of Hunnell and Clausen Roads are not true. There were also statements made that we have no shelter beds available. This is also untrue. We have recently increased shelter capacity in Bend and have had availability as recently as this week for people to enter low-barrier shelter.”
Returning to court on Monday, City attorneys provided proof that the City had responded to and approved accommodation requests. Judge Wells Ashby ruled that the sweep would proceed. Hemingway expressed his disappointment to the Source Weekly. “It’s going to have a really tragic and adverse impact on a lot of people out there,” he said.
The City of Bend Attorney’s Office released at statement after the hearing on July 17, stating, “This litigation was unnecessary. The City’s ADA Manager timely considers reasonable modification requests and given the short time, would have quickly engaged in the interactive process and arrived at the same conclusions without anyone needing to go to court,” wrote Assistant City Attorney Ian Leitheiser.
Plaintiff Myntora Aguilar currently lives in her trailer on Clausen Road with her eight-year-old son. She’s yet to find a place to go. “I’ve been on the (Safe) Parking waiting list for a while now,” said Aguilar. “It’s gonna take a while.”
According to Aguilar, shelters require people to be looking for housing. “I’ve been doing that for years and it’s really hard for me to get a place,” she said. “Having to move is going to be hard,” she said. “And with this new (camping) code that they have, it’s going to be really difficult.”
Anne Aurand, the City of Bend’s communication director, said that the cleanup and road restoration could take four to six days of work. But that all depends on how many people remain after the closure.
“All cars, RV’s, camper trailers and other personal items remaining will be stored for 30 days for individuals to come collect their belongings,” Aurand said.
This article appears in Source Weekly July 20, 2023.
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