Several years ago, Rep. Jason Kropf (D-Bend) and other community leaders had the good idea to unify the various governments and supporting nonprofits, creating a pilot Coordinated Houseless Response Office. The aim was to prevent duplication of resources and to see the various resources at the city and county level working in cohesion to address homelessness in the area. That program hit a snag earlier this year when its inaugural executive director resigned, citing a lack of coordination about the purpose of the office as one of the reasons for leaving.
We are now seeing what happens when the City and the County “go their own way” without the coordination of the other.
Right now, county officials are executing a five-step plan to clear the area of Juniper Ridge, starting with the cleanup of waste and the delivery of water and sanitation facilities. This will eventually lead to the removal of people from the property. City officials, meanwhile, are planning to clear Hunnell Road on July 17. Neither camp removal is welcomed by those living there and by the service providers who help the residents address their needs.
While the county’s methodical approach carried out over a longer timeframe does appear to be a bit more coordinated than the City’s plan, the fact that both of these removals are going on at about the same time speaks to what we face when we have an uncoordinated response like this. Two removals at the same time will generate a level of displacement that service providers will find hard to manage.
These removals will see hundreds of people suddenly without homes and needing more social services than before. The county’s health service director told the Source Weekly that her team of nine is going to be spread thin supporting those at the camps. And that’s not even factoring in the needs of the other 200,000-some residents of Deschutes County.
Were there an overseeing body that united both county and city efforts, we might not see these going on simultaneously. On the flip side, with the removals of two large encampments at the same time, there will be one less place for people to relocate; no moving from Juniper Ridge to Hunnell or vice-versa. For someone who wants to abolish homeless encampments all together, that might seem like a win. But for a person who’s living in one of these places, these coming weeks are going to feel additionally chaotic and uncertain, to be sure.
City officials tout the addition of hundreds more shelter beds as the reason they can do this now. While that may put it in compliance with the precedents set by the Martin v. Boise case, which dictated that cities can’t remove people without having adequate numbers of shelter beds, it’s not going to be pretty. Officials already know that many of those living in encampments don’t want to live in shelters. They fear losing their stuff. They may not relish living in a communal space. They may have aversions to residing in a low-barrier shelter where sobriety isn’t required of others.
So where are they going to go? Will a removal of camps in the nether regions of Bend result in more visible encampments in a city already chock-full of summer tourists? Bend and Deschutes County are about to find out — and until the local governments of our region find someone to lead their Coordinated Office and to unite the leaders of the region around a common goal, expect homelessness to be much more visible, and painful, than it’s been thus far.
This article appears in Source Weekly July 6, 2023.
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Brilliant editorial that puts things in stark perspective.
“Uncoordinated” sweeps equal still more misery for people trying to survive in the harsh summer conditions of Central Oregon. Uncoordinated policy implementation will not find enough shelter, housing, or parking space; the numbers of unhoused people are too high. They tasked Cheyenne Purrington with finding housing for the people due to be displaced from Hunnell in March. (Talk about setting someone up for failure.) She failed, but City Manager King acknowledged the dearth of available shelter, so he called off the sweep. 3 months later–with no improvement in shelter capacity–the sweep is on again for July 17,
Who is he listening to? Probably not flabbergasted service providers and a large segment of 20-somethings in the community who don’t see the sense of spending tens of thousands of dollars to randomly chase miserable people from one unauthorized location to another ad infinitum. (I am–just for my own peace of mind–tabling around town for a petition to stop the Hunnell sweep. Unsurprisingly, it is community members in their twenties who are most likely to sign the petition. Keep this in mind, City Councilors, as you ponder running for re-election or pursuing higher office. Your votes will be vetted and your policies will be perused.
While the City of Bend in 3 short years has co-partnered in creating hundreds of new shelter spaces, it is still not nearly enough. The additional shelter space the City is touting to justify its Hunnell Road sweep consists of the kind of high barrier entry for which many unhoused people may not qualify–and it is not enough. Add Hunnell to the imminent ODOT sweeps, the Sheriff’s obsession with clearing Juniper Ridge, the upcoming Redmond removals, etc., etc. and we have the makings of a major humanitarian crisis.
In addition, we now are hearing that the Lighthouse may drastically cut back on beds this summer for a remodeling.
We need to let unhoused people shelter in place; it is not perfect, but it can be life-saving. We need the kind of managed low barrier authorized camping facility that County Commissioner speaks about so fervently:
“If the City of Bend or Deschutes County clears people from an unauthorized location like Hunnell Road without appropriate housing, shelter, managed camps, or safe parking sites lined up we are not solving a problem, we are just moving unauthorized camping to a new location and causing stress to a new set of nearby residents and businesses.” (Phil Chang, March 14, 2023)
the ed states that if the homeless folks are cleared out they won’t have a home to go to. so if they find another place to legally camp or park are they not homeless any longer. and if there is space at a shelter some won’t go because fearing for their safety as if living outdoors is safer. i don’t mean to be flip but neither the city nor the county, even as much as they have done, are not making eradication of our homeless issue JOB #! if they did monetary resource allocation would provide for treatment for the addicted and mentally ill, subsidies for those working homeless who still can’t afford rent in bend, assistance to our vets and working harder to place underage homeless in foster care or the like.
i may be late to understanding this but as i drove around Bend the other day, there are new apartment complexes springing up all over town in every sector and plenty more being built. frankly, there is no use complaining about not enough affordable housing, there isn’t any, and there won’t be any unless developers abandon the profit motive and build affordable housing with it’s companion risk of loosing money. they are building what they are building because they would like to make money and people will rent them because they work and make a decent wage and want to be in Bend…it’s the American way. what is not the American way is to not take responsibility for one’s lot in life and have entitlement expectations that exceed reality and the wherewithal of service providers and government.
PLEASE, city, county, state, feds, help our fellow citizens get the help they need for their addictions, mental health issues, insufficient income, etc., but please realize that not everyone is able to live here in Bend just ’cause! i’d like to live on Park Ave in NYC, but i know i could never afford it, so guess what? i don’t try. there are many places in the US where rent is more affordable than Bend, try them!