Solutions to homelessness are often incremental and can seem rare — or even nonexistent — to the untrained eye. And sometimes traditional solutions, or just one solution, isn’t enough.

When it comes to Tessy Moon, a 38-year-old Redmond mother of four whose experience with homelessness has been chronicled in local news pages since 2022, it’s not for a lack of trying or community help that she remains homeless.

When the odds were stacked against Moon, community support helped her make necessary repairs on her manufactured home. But the odds ultimately won, at least for now. Moon remains homeless and is now separated from her children.

In Central Oregon, the tangible obstacles to getting out of homelessness are often difficult to overcome. Even more difficult to overcome is the hopelessness that comes with it, service providers say.

But they agree on one thing: Housing is the best first step out of homelessness.

Why is it so difficult to get out — and stay out — of homelessness?

Tangible obstacles to getting out of homelessness include rental agreements that require paying first and last month’s rent upfront, low credit scores, outstanding unpaid bills, pets, space constraints associated with kids, medical care, disabilities, steady employment, addiction relapse and a criminal history.

The list could go on, and it’s different for every person. Programs and assistance exist for those challenges.

“I don’t know that there is a program for hopelessness,” said Rick Russell, executive director of Mountain View Community Development, which runs a safe-parking program behind a Redmond church where he is a pastor.

People need resources, but people also need a personal touch.

“At the end of the day, it is a caring person and a relationship,” Russell said.

Russell has seen the hope drain from families as they try again and again but fail to find housing. Until they don’t fail.

Last year, of the around 100 people in Mountain View’s safe-parking program, 30 people moved onto what Russell called a “positive destination.” Eighteen of those 30 people got into permanent housing, and others began living in transitional housing, a detox facility or a family member’s house. Fourteen people dropped out of the program, and 50 people remain, still waiting for housing.

The key to getting people into homes largely had to do with persistence. It’s about encouraging someone who has been denied from three apartments to apply to a fourth, Russell said.

Despite it’s effectiveness, the safe-parking program is at risk of losing funding because it doesn’t fit conventional definitions of shelter, which means it doesn’t qualify for most state and federal grants.

“Our program runs the risk of becoming homeless,” Russell said.

What can solve homelessness

Once someone begins living in a house again, the struggles they had while homeless don’t just go away, said Carly Congdon, interim housing stabilization director at the social services nonprofit NeighborImpact.

Ongoing support after someone moves into housing is key.

“That looks like having more wraparound services available in Central Oregon, strengthening community support for these programs, and reducing stigma around households and individuals experiencing homelessness,” Congdon wrote in an email.

NeighborImpact assists with both the tangible and intangible obstacles through a variety of programs. In fiscal year 2023, the nonprofit distributed $1.3 million to homelessness service providers across the region for short, medium and long-term programs. Those funds are in addition to the variety of supportive social services provided.

“I think that creating shelter beds is great for keeping people from freezing to death, but it does not get people out of houselessness,” said Janice Garceau, Deschutes County’s health services director. “Most people who are living in a camper or a tent are not going to tell you that sleeping next to 50 people is their preferred housing choice.”

In conversations about homelessness, Garceau said there’s entirely too much focus on what’s wrong with people instead of the what’s wrong with Central Oregon’s housing market. The region’s status as a tourist destination and Deschutes County’s resort community presents additional challenges, Garceau said.

An estimated 11,443 housing units are vacant in Deschutes County for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Roughly 1,811 people are homeless in Central Oregon, and 1,430 of them are in Deschutes County, according to preliminary data from the 2024 Point-in-Time Count, a federally-mandated annual census of people experiencing homelessness,

“Housing availability — low, low-income housing availability — is the single biggest contributing factor for the difficulties for exiting homelessness, in my opinion,” Garceau said.

That, paired with a lack of supportive and transitional housing for people with serious, chronic mental illness, substance use disorders or medical issues, can keep people cycling in and out of homelessness, Garceau said.

The county acts as a public mental and behavioral health provider, so much of its homelessness outreach revolves around care. The county’s outreach team is focused on people with untreated serious mental illness and substance use disorders, Garceau said.

“I know a lot of people think that everyone who is unsheltered and houseless is in that category, but it’s really not accurate,” she said.

Between 10% to 11% of people served by the county’s public health department are homeless, according to Garceau. Behavioral and mental health services are voluntary, not mandatory, so it can take months and even years to build enough trust with clients to get them the help they need, Garceau said. In one case, it took two years to develop enough rapport with a client just to get the client in the building, she said.

“We’re trying to address all those barriers and in a community where many people just don’t want to see these folks as their neighbors and living down the road,” Garceau said.

She added: “If you really want to get people out of houselessness, there has to be some dignified way for them to live that they can afford.”

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

This story is the second in a two-part series that explores how one woman’s obstacles to exiting homelessness reflects how Central Oregon’s system of social services offers problems and solutions. The first story published on Sunday, April 7. Read it here.

“If you really want to get people out of houselessness, there has to be some dignified way for them to live that they can afford.”

— Janice Garceau, Deschutes County health services director