Deschutes County may have found a service provider to support people in a developed homeless campground in East Redmond, but it’s unclear how much money will be left over for other operations like security, trash removal and porta potties.
In March, Deschutes County and the City of Redmond completed construction on a 36-site fenced campground with gravel roads, campsites, power and water. But it’s been sitting vacant after initial calls to run it went unanswered by Central Oregon’s largest homeless service nonprofits, which said the County was asking too much for too little funding.
The County then scaled back its request with hopes to get the camp up and running, with hundreds of people still camping on nearby government-owned lands where homelessness has hamstrung industrial development.
Deputy County Administrator Erik Kropp told the Source in an email Monday that the County still doesn’t have an estimate for when people might be able to move into the camp.
But the County took a step in that direction on Monday. With a 2-1 vote, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners signaled its intent to award a contract to First Light, a nonprofit that specializes in substance use treatment and reentry programs. The County will still have to negotiate how much of its $500,000 budget for two years of operations to include in the contract for the support services intended to help people get out of homelessness, and how much to leave for nuts-and-bolts camp operations.
Deschutes County and the City of Redmond inked an agreement in October to split $676,000 in construction costs to build the camp. The site is on 5.5 acres of County-owned north of the Redmond Airport and U.S. Highway 126, about 1.5 miles east of downtown Redmond. The County set aside enough land to eventually double the camp to 72 spaces.
The managed camp will be a first-of-its-kind model in Central Oregon, with slightly more infrastructure and stability than the designated “safe stay” camping area north of Bend at Juniper Ridge, where hundreds of people are living.
According to First Light’s application, one or two staff will be on site for two to four hours a day, seven days a week. Staff would enforce rules, resolve disputes and provide workshops such as job prep, nutrition and self-care to help people work toward housing.
“Our focus is to help folks who are struggling with SUD [substance use disorder] and mental health, ensuring they have the proper referrals to achieve that housing and also around job search, to help uplift them out of that place that they’re in currently,” Executive Director Lorenzo Perez told county commissioners Monday.
First Light’s application estimated the work will cost about $16,415 per month, or nearly $394,000 over two years.
More funding would be helpful, Perez said.
“We’re really doing a service to the County and the City by accepting such a restricted budget,” Executive Director Lorenzo Perez told county commissioners on Monday.
That’s a sentiment Central Oregon service providers have echoed since managed camp discussions began nearly two years ago.
First Light formed about four years ago, with Perez bringing two decades of experience in the local behavioral health field. First Light runs street outreach programs to homeless camps, but hasn’t run a shelter before.
When the County initially sought an operator in January, it passed on First Light’s application and two others, citing in part a lack of experience managing shelters. No new groups applied the second time around. Home More Network , an outreach and basic needs nonprofit, also submitted a second application to run the camp.
Central Oregon Villages, one of the region’s largest outdoor shelter providers, told the Source the County’s revised request would have been too difficult to run well without more funding.
“If we were to manage the camp we would recommend something with far more staffing in order to create success,” Executive Director Scott Jones wrote in an email.
Under the revised model, the County will hold contracts for security, porta potties and trash removal.
The County doesn’t know exactly how much security it will be able to provide but estimates one to two hours per day based on the current budget, Kropp, the deputy county administrator, told commissioners Monday.
Without an around-the-clock camp host, there won’t be anyone to open and close gates to the camp at night, Kropp said. And it means camp residents would be responsible for calling 911 in an after-hours emergency, he said.
City of Redmond staff will be responsible for coordinating entries into the camp.
The City surveyed interest in the camp as it moves people off of industrial park land in east Redmond north of Antler Avenue. In March County Commissioners asked the City to hold off on the sweep until the managed camp was open, but the City moved ahead, citing public safety and affects on local business, with a goal of having the land cleared by June 1.
County staff reported in April that 14 people had recently moved their camps to County-owned land in east Redmond, including 10 from the City’s industrial park. In total, about 160 people are camped on County lands in the area, including a few on a 137-acre parcel designated for a land swap with the state that was held up by the presence of encampments in 2022. Most people are now living in an area outside the city limits dubbed the “Green Zone,” where the County isn’t forcing people to move for the time being.
Deputy City Manager Steve Ashworth told the Source the eight people who remain camped at the industrial park have all expressed interest in moving to the managed camp.
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