Guest Column: Community effort moves on helping the homeless population

Published 1:15 am Friday, January 19, 2024

Volunteers, Dave Clark, left and Chris Cassard take down a canopy in front of the First Presbyterian Church in Bend that served as a cold shelter for about 40 homeless people. 

This month, Central Oregon has seen frigid temperatures, dangerous conditions and many inches of snow. This weather caused all of us barriers and discomfort, but we have warm homes, a stocked fridge, winter clothing and reliable transportation. Imagine having to live outside in conditions like this. Imagine living in a tent or your car or an RV without heat, water, and a toilet. Imagine having a child or a pet and trying to keep them safe.

We serve as elected officials on the Deschutes County and Cities of Bend, La Pine, Redmond, and Sisters — Coordinated Homelessness Response Office (CHRO). This Office was established by House Bill 4123, along with other pilot communities around the state to disrupt the homelessness crisis. This legislation and its concept originated in our community in recognition that a coordinated effort is needed to strengthen our region’s homeless response. We want to use data, public engagement, sustainability of resources, and best practices to help move forward this critical work.

Approximately 75% of our homeless population lives unsheltered, some of the highest rates in the country. That is roughly 1,189 people without shelter of some form. In addition, Oregon has the highest rate of family homelessness and unaccompanied minors in the entire country. We are in an emergency and while we may not always agree about the causes or the solutions, we have come together in the spirit of collaboration to acknowledge that homelessness isn’t just a Redmond problem or a Bend problem, it is a critical issue for all of us to take on in Deschutes County.

This regional approach works. Nowhere is this more evident than in the warming shelters and day centers we saw all over our County this past week. In Bend, in addition to the Navigation Center opening its doors even wider than normal and warming centers at the Council on Aging, we saw First Presbyterian open throughout the coldest of the cold to house and feed 35-40 people. Sisters opened their emergency shelter. La Pine’s Activity Center opened to the public as a shelter during the day.

And in Redmond, a newly opened shelter provided a warm space for 46 adults. Our county’s libraries also welcomed people who needed a warm space during the day. While it is still critical we open more resources, our communities have shown that they will take care of their own.

We want to thank Deschutes County Health Services — Preparedness and Engagement Program team and the Homeless Leadership Coalition for the coordination, communication and set up work for these shelters. We want to thank our service providers, Shepherds House, Mountain View Fellowship, Family Kitchen, our libraries, and so many more for their hard work. And we want to thank all the volunteers who donated clothing or time or food or money during this emergency. We have such giving people in Deschutes County, and we are proud to represent you and serve you.

Over the next few months, we will be working on a regional request for proposals for outdoor shelters of various types (safe parking, authorized camp, RV camps, etc.). We need to help people out of dangerous unmanaged camping situations and into supported and supportive conditions. With this work we will also be committing to a “road show” of sorts in each of our communities to talk about facts and figures, the work being done in that community, successes, and the gaps we still need to fill.

For more information about our strategic plan and the work we are doing, please go to:

deschutes.org/chro.

This week, we witnessed the way our communities can come together to offer life-saving help. We will continue this work together — not always in agreement about how it should happen, but always about our goal.

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