Editor’s note: On Wed., March 20, following a fiery public comment session, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners voted to move the Adult Parole and Probation facility to another location, away from Wilson Avenue. We’ll follow up with more news coverage on this topic in the days to come.
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?
This article appears in Source Weekly March 21, 2024.
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The County and the City of Bend are not complying with shelter land-use codes, and COIC is not adequately overseeing the compliance of Wilson shelter property. Three government entities are not following the law.
Ask Tammy Baney, the Executive Director with COIC, for a copy of Amendment no. 2, executed on 3/14/2024, for this Wilson property.
Amendment no. 2 reads:
Deschutes County Document Number 2024-236
1. a. “Operation of a managed housing program that includes at least with shelter beds (high barrier status was approved by COIC on January 22, 2024 based on actual operational plans and availability of funds for high barrier programming not available at time of original application) for male-justice involved individuals.
Additionally, Oregon’s website FAQ clearly states that rapid rehousing funds are not to acquire buildings, which counters Bend City Councilor Megan Perkins’s rebuttal.
https://www.oregon.gov/ohcs/pages/housing-eo.aspx
“FAQ – Can rapid rehousing funds be used to acquire buildings for use as permanent housing?
No, acquiring buildings for use as permanent housing is not an eligible expense for rapid rehousing funds.
Acquisition of buildings that increase the shelter bed capacity is a permitted use of shelter funds, and this type of project would be eligible only under the shelter fund grant category.”
I’d like to add that the non profit who was supposed to do their (highly disputed) outreach, had a conflict of interest. Free on the Outside stands to acquire the property after 10 years without conditions. The County did NOT do any of their own outreach. Nothing was sent to homeowners, and the flyer they claim to pass out wasn’t bilingual (and none of the people who weren’t home got anything). Also it was done in 45 minutes around noon on a Monday, in a low income neighborhood where most people work during the day. The county relied on that outreach in good faith, and then tells us it was a curtesy they even did it at all. It sure seems like they wanted to minimize public input and the push back they knew they would get. I feel bad for the commissioners having to deal with this ridiculous situation.
A comment on another thread I saw:.
“Word and name play to fill their agenda. They just got caught with the Wilson site and appears to think playing dumb is their best option.
Reality is, they were exposed and realized the community isn’t sleeping and stood against something for the greater good of their community and taxes. And it worked. The people still have power in numbers and this isn’t something government officials like us knowing.”
The Source should be embarrassed they posted this terribly written facebook rant as an opinion piece.