The Deschutes County Board of Commissioners is asking the members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly to rewrite sections of House Bill 2006. That's the 2021 bill that compelled cities to approve homeless shelters if they met criteria around access to transportation, are deemed not to be a public safety threat and comply with building codes. The bill allows shelters to skirt land use laws that previously blocked some, but it only applies to areas within an urban growth boundary or a rural residential zone.
The commissioners are asking the legislature to allow shelters on unincorporated areas besides rural residential zones, as long as they're close to an incorporated city. The commissioners previously sent a letter to Gov. Tina Kotek asking her to allow shelters in unincorporated territory, but Commissioner Phil Chang said it may be more effectively tackled by the legislature.
"The legislature has already dealt with trying to figure out where you can do shelter, transitional housing, outside of urban growth boundaries with House Bill 2006. And as I've said for probably over a year, I think some minor tweaks to that existing legislation, could probably get us what we need in terms of clearance to allow this kind of use in the unincorporated county," Chang said.
HB 2006 expires on July 1, and unless the legislature drafts a new bill, older norms to create shelters will be put back in place. Despite relaxed criteria for shelters, there are roadblocks that have been insurmountable for local service providers.
"Property owners have offered up 9 acres of land for various kinds of homeless facilities, and the only major barrier is land use clearance," Chang said.
The county already leases safe parking spots on county-owned land on SE Seventh Street and Evergreen Avenue in Redmond. Mountain View Community Development manages the program and provides garbage services, restrooms and homeless services for six tenants who can stay up to 90 days. Commissioner Tony DeBone noted a lot of land adjacent to cities is privately owned and that it may be challenging to bring in partners. He said churches can be sited on rural resource land and may be willing to partner, but that some may not have the infrastructure to sustain a safe parking spot.
"If there was a path for existing church parking lots maybe there's discussion to be had there; it probably all boils down to septic capacity, because I know you don't want to have a failing system," DeBone said. "Maybe that's a good conversation to have, if some churches are willing."
Bend established a safe parking program in its city limits in 2021 and Redmond approved its program last year. Deschutes County recently looked into funding a safe parking spot on City-owned property in southern Bend, but backed out of the project earlier this month after intense community backlash.
