One Good Turn Deserves Another

It’s not a secret, and it’s nothing new: Central Oregon has too few homes for the people who already live here — not to mention the ones who keep coming — and the housing we do have is expensive. On this page, over the years we’ve advocated for all sorts of solutions: for governments to step up and do more to build shelters and incentivize affordable housing; for churches and other facilities to open their parking lots for safe parking; for private entities to consider ways they could secure spaces for people to live. Solutions to a housing crisis, on an individual level, could come in the form of devoting a room in one’s home to a renter or even building an ADU on one’s property.

In that spirit, a local developer was aiming to be part of the solution. Faced with a lot that needed a great deal of work to develop, this developer opted instead to place four tiny homes on it. The small spaces are reserved for elders and families. As the process unfolded, notices went out to neighbors to let them know what was happening. Then when the homes began to arrive, as if right on cue, a neighbor complained. No one had even moved in yet, but the neighbor was concerned that proper notice had been given.

As a recent story published in the Source detailed, the concerns that neighbors have around these types of facilities — that they will increase crime and cause property values to go down — simply don’t bear out. Property values still rise. The facility in question, on Franklin Avenue, is managed by the nonprofit Central Oregon Villages, which offers support services and vets the residents who will occupy the homes. This summer, the nonprofit held several sessions that allowed neighbors to learn what was happening.

The practical result of this type of resistance is that the same elderly people and families who might live here will now live unsheltered, without support, where they’d be forced to make harder choices to survive. We can only assume that people want to see homelessness addressed in our community — but only if it happens out of sight of their own homes or property.

We are optimistic that the housing will still be built and that this only another delay and inconvenience. It is rare to see a developer come forward and to offer up their own private property toward an end such as this. But at some point, we’d like see that person held up and celebrated rather than shut down.

This article appears in the Source October 30, 2025.