Last week's News section featured a story about the group titled Eastside Votes, made up of a group of neighbors on the east side of Bend who claim that shelter facilities are too concentrated on the east side of the city. While public officials we talked to say there are many factors that go into siting a shelter or facility for those experiencing homelessness — including cost of land — something beyond the topic of economic or geographic segregation caught our eyes.
It's related to Deschutes County's Wilson Avenue property, selected for an Adult Parole and Probation house. In our news story, City Councilor Megan Perkins emphasized that the site was not considered a shelter, and rather, was considered housing. This is relevant here because of the public notice process. Facilities falling under the City of Bend's shelter code necessitate a fairly robust public notice process, informing neighbors, for example, of the prospective use for that type of site, and require an entity show proof that the notice was given to adjacent neighbors. But because the Adult Parole and Probation site was deemed "housing" by City and County officials, it was not subject to that robust public process that sites falling under the shelter code might.
After we published our story, a reader pointed out that the Adult Parole and Probation site appeared on the City of Bend's "City-Funded Shelters" web page. The text linking to the document reads: "A full list of shelter beds in Bend can be viewed on this document."
When we asked Perkins about this, she said the Wilson Avenue property is more specifically designated as "rapid rehousing," a so-called "grey area" between a shelter and permanent housing, and that we should ask the County why it designated the property the way it did.
So we asked the County.
"County and City staff have both reviewed the definition of shelter as defined under the Bend Development Code and agree it does not apply to the Wilson Triplex," Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang told the Source Weekly.
Are you confused yet?
Beyond the general confusion of listing the Wilson Avenue property as a shelter on one web page, and then saying it's not elsewhere, there's the aforementioned topic of public notice. Neighbors adjacent to the Wilson Avenue property say they were never given notice that adult parolees — some who may be designated sex offenders or violent offenders — were soon to move into their neighborhood. Neighbors mentioned that at least a dozen children live within a short distance of the property, among other concerns. The nonprofit running the adult parole and probation program told the Source that its staff did hand out flyers in the neighborhood, but people at 11 of the 25 homes they canvassed did not answer the door.
If it's a "shelter," it would necessitate the type of public notice that neighbors now say they wish they would have had. That's the way it's listed on public documents that are, as of this writing, still live on the City of Bend's website.
So what gives? If public officials themselves are confused about shelter designations, what about the rest of us?
