Deschutes County has identified a 45-acre parcel of land on the eastern edge of Redmond as the future site of a managed homeless camp, creating a path for a long-awaited land swap and the removal of unhoused people living in camps on nearby lands.

By a 2-1 vote on Monday, the Deschutes County Commission told staff to pursue the creation of a new facility that includes fencing, designated campsites, sanitation services, case management and an onsite camp host to ensure rules are followed.

Commissioners Phil Chang and Patti Adair voted in favor of the plan.

“It’s time that we do something,” Adair said.

Commissioner Tony DeBone voted against it, fearing the county will sink too much time and money into the proposed plan.

“We just stepped into quicksand,” he said after the vote.

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Deschutes County Commissioners clash over homeless camps

Location of the camp

The future managed camp site is just inside the eastern border of the Redmond city limits. The undeveloped parcel of High Desert, where a handful of people are already sheltered in tents and RVs, lies north of Redmond Airport and Oasis Village, a transitional housing shelter. The Bureau of Land Management owns hundreds of acres to the east.

Directly to the north of the proposed site is another 137 acres of undeveloped county-owned land, the subject of a pending swap with the Department of State Lands for property near the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center.

The state put the decades-old land swap agreement on hold in 2022, asking the county to first remove unhoused people, and their camps, from the 137 acres.

Until now, county staff have not fully planned a process to remove people from their camps. That effort was paused because the county had no alternative location for people to use, and was waiting for other recently-funded homeless housing projects in the region to be built while dealing with code enforcement issues elsewhere, said Erik Kropp, deputy county administrator for Deschutes County.

The county passed a code restricting camping last year. On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that rules restricting homeless camping are not unconstitutional as a lower court had said they were, giving the county confidence that challenges to the code will hold up.

Oregon law still requires governments to be “objectively reasonable” when forcing people to move from camps.

Removing and relocating people camping on the 137 acres would likely take the better part of a year, Kropp said, and only after the new managed camp is up and running.

Camp structure

The managed camp concept approved by commissioners Monday would feature a 6-foot-high fence around the perimeter of the site, with one main entrance to control access. Residents would be assigned a designated place to camp and provided a locked area to store belongings. A camp host would make sure rules are followed, like no open flames, visitors, and for general cleanliness.

DeBone recommended the county start with something similar to the Juniper Ridge encampment north of Bend — no fencing, but with toilets, sanitation and outreach services — and work up to a more robust camp.

Chang said starting with the more intensive model would be necessary to begin moving people out of homelessness. Adair said she wanted to go beyond what’s already happening at Juniper Ridge.

“We’ve got to make progress,” she said.

‘Not an easy place to get to’

Earlier this year, the county earmarked $1.5 million to expand outdoor shelter options across the county. Some of the funds could be used for the 45-acre site, while the city of Redmond has said it might also contribute to infrastructure, Kropp said.

A handful of other proposals, including new safe parking areas, an Oasis Village expansion and managed camps are currently being evaluated by the Coordinated Homeless Response Office.

None were proposed for the land where the county now hopes to build a managed camp.

The property’s rough, undeveloped roads require four-wheel drive and high clearance, said Bob Bohac, who has provided outreach services in the area for eight years and helped develop Oasis Village. He said no service provider is likely to step up to host the camp unless several infrastructure improvements, including a road, are built.

“It’s not an easy place to get to,” he said.

He said people likely won’t stay on the 45 acres unless there is adequate safety, security, services and physical necessities. Without that, “all we’re doing is playing Whack-a-Mole with the population, and in the long term that’s just not going to cut it,” he said.

Service providers are scheduled to meet with Redmond city officials in August to discuss the site. Linda Cline, housing program analyst with the city of Redmond, urged commissioners on Monday to hold off on pursuing the site until after the meeting with service providers, but commissioners wanted to get the process going.

“Time is money, and this is taking a lot of time,” Adair said.