People living on U.S. Forest Service land south of Bend have been forced to relocate following a May 1 closure of the area. A collection of lived-in vehicles lined the streets of China Hat Road on Thursday morning, just outside of the now-restricted area that hundreds of houseless residents called home. The closure, in effect for a planned forest restoration project near Cabin Butte, started on May 1, forcing an estimated 150 to 200 people to leave.
The National Homelessness Law Center held a press conference Thursday in front of a Forest Service gate, informing community members and residents about the status of those remaining in the area and those who have left.
While service providers were able to assist many people in towing and moving vehicles and personal belongings out of the forest, questions remain about how those still in the closure area, many of whom are living in inoperable cars or RVs, will be relocated.
Many were able to move out prior to the gate closure, which occurred around 3 am on May 1. However, an estimated 40-60 people remained in the area as of Thursday at 10 am, service providers said.
“We were told that they’ll issue them a warning, which means, leave now. If they don’t leave, then, at that point, they could be arrested,” Chuck Hemmingway, a service provider with local organization Home More Network, told the Source. “We’re hoping that maybe, as a result of this, the Forest Service will announce a plan.”
According to Kaitlyn Webb, public affairs officer with the Deschutes National Forest, their goal is voluntary compliance.
“Our law enforcement officers are approaching this closure with compassion. Our officers want to support individuals with voluntary, successful transitions out of the closure area with their belongings to the extent possible. Citations will be issued, if necessary,” she told the Source via email on May 1.
The Deschutes National Forest is closing 34,600 acres in the Cabin Butte area through at least April 30, 2026, while crews use heavy machinery to remove hazardous materials and conduct prescribed burns. Several trails in the area are also closed.
Former China Hat resident, Mandy Bryant, and her partner Chris Daggett left their camp in China Hat prior to the closure and were set up just outside of the gate on Thursday morning.
While Daggett and Bryant hoped to help others move their belongings out of China Hat, they are unsure about whether they’re able to re-enter the area.
“We’re just trying to get a solid answer on what they’re going to let us do,” Bryant told the Source Weekly.
Bryant said she is unsure where her and Dagget will go from here.
Homelessness advocates have criticized the Forest Service for its closure process, stating that it did not follow through with its plan of coordinating with service providers to assist in the relocations.
“They don’t want us here, they don’t want us there,” she said. “I know we weren’t supposed to be out there, but the same time, [the forest service] didn’t do what they said they were going to do.”
In recent months, advocates started an effort to halt the project, or delay the deadline, to avoid the displacement of individuals living in the area. The group submitted a letter to the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District in late March, requesting the project be delayed or canceled, citing significant impacts and an uncoordinated effort to relocate those experiencing homelessness.
In April, the group, which includes Hemingway and Eric Garrity with the Bend Equity Project, a collaborative group supporting human rights efforts and offering aid, requested a Temporary Restraining Order against the May 1 public closure of the Cabin Butte Project.
The request for the TRO argued that the closure would cause “irreparable harm.” On April 28, the Oregon U.S. District Court denied the request.
“We understand the need for fire mitigation, but we’re disappointed that there wasn’t an organized effort by the forest service that would have prevented an orderly relocation of people over time, assisted by service providers, instead of what resulted in a mass exodus yesterday and late last night, up until 3am,” said Hemmingway.
Following the closure, service providers plan to continue assisting in relocation efforts.
REACH, a local outreach organization, has been going out to the area to bring auto parts, car batteries and other necessary items for those trying to leave. Executive Director Stacey Witte told the Source Weekly that REACH set up at a nearby gas station on Thursday to help fill up gas and propone.
“The challenge is, quite a few people out there have been there for so many years. The vehicles are just a huge challenge to fix, repair and get out of there. Of course, the other barrier is, where did they go? No safe places were, kind of, coordinated before this effort,” Witte told the Source.
While Witte said some people are going to Juniper Ridge, an area dotted with encampments in north Bend that’s also largely slated for closure in the coming months, others are just scattering.
“We don’t even have anywhere really that we can refer them to, that’s the challenge. So, that’s where we’re coming in,” she said. “We’re making sure people have phones that are working, phone cards, gas, propane, all of those basic needs to make sure that can kind of help them figure out what to do and where to go.”
A portion of Juniper Ridge, which is set to become a temporary managed camp on May 31, seems to be the most viable alternative for people right now, according to Hemmingway. However, he hopes to see more coordination in the future, creating safe places for people to stay.
“We need to provide a legally recognized location for people faced with experiencing homelessness, where they can live with dignity and live in a safe and secure environment,” Hemmingway said. “We hope that this might be the start of an effort throughout Central Oregon to bring that to pass within the next several years.”
This article appears in Source Weekly May 1st, 2025.
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The US Forest is not a place to live and that is not it’s intended purpose, period. Also it is not the US Forests job to mitigate what to do with houseless folks. It is their job to protect the forest and enforce their rules to make it safe for all. Allowing people to live in our forests should never have been allowed to begin with. The infrastructure is not in place to support this and it is dangerous for the homeless and our communities surrounding the forests. The county needs to step in and help those folks who want help and for those who don’t want help and want to continue to live this way, because many of them do, they need to move to a place that is perhaps more affordable for them.
Now comes the part where they relocate someplace else they shouldn’t be………and 2 years from now we will read a story about them getting moved out from that place. Rinse and repeat. You can already see the population growing off Hwy 92 just North of Bend on the right hand side………concrete barriers be damned.