“The goal is really to help the larger community to become more aware and educated about what it means to be homeless, what’s being done to help with the problem of homelessness, and so it’s primarily an educational goal,” says Barbara Belzer with the Central Oregon Homelessness Alliance, explaining why the nonprofit is hosting its second annual community forum on the issue.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is the evening of Tuesday, March 3 at Westside Church. Belzer says about 40 local nonprofits that provide support to the homeless are participating and will staff tables to answer questions and provide information. Audience members can also tour mobile outreach vans from Mosaic Community Health, Shepherd’s House and the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council Workforce Team.
Speakers this year include Eliza Wilson, board chair of the Homeless Leadership Coalition, who will explain how the local landscape has changed over the past year for the homeless population. Rick Russell, executive director of Mountain View Community Development, will lead a forum with four people including two formerly homeless individuals: Dr. Josh Reiher, who’s the head of Mosaic’s street medicine mobile clinic, and filmmaker Jezza Neumann, who’s working on a project about homeless families.
The Homeless Leadership Coalition maintains a homeless dashboard that provides a community snapshot. It saw a 1% increase from December to January in the number of adults or head of households assisted. During the same time period, there was an 18% increase in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness. Nearly 1,300 of the homeless assisted in January were children.
Belzer says after last year’s forum, she saw more cooperation among agencies. “From last year’s forum, we became aware of how important it was for the agencies,” Belzer says. “They talked to us a lot about how much they enjoyed being able to get together and have that opportunity to network.
While most of the audience is expected to be people involved with one of the advocacy groups, she’s hoping anyone from the general public with an interest in issues related to homelessness will attend to learn more about the complex experience of being homeless and volunteer opportunities working toward solutions.
Community Forum on Understanding Homelessness
Tue, March 3, 5-8:30pm
Westside Church
2501 NW Shevlin Park Rd, Bend
cohomelessness.org/events/2026-central-oregon-homelessness-forum
Free
This article appears in the Source February 26, 2026.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
