BEND, OR -- Deschutes County will assign someone to oversee the planned removal of homeless camps. Commissioners approved shifting an employee from the county’s COVID Response and Recovery program to the newly created project manager position to provide support services as city officials move forward with encampment closures along Hunnell Road in Bend, and southeast of Redmond.

Health Services Director Janice Garceau told commissioners the COVID program is transitioning away from the pandemic to more basic emergency preparedness efforts, “In this particular case it’s a very specific need. It’s kind of a full-time project. It’s a 90 day, I believe, funding request for that particular position. But hopefully this is something we can help support in some way.” Garceau told commissioners how she sees the work, “My understanding is the need at the moment is for a person to help project plan these 3 planned events. And really, they’re not responsible for the closure; they’re responsible for coordinating the services that are going to support the people impacted by the closure.”

There is concern those efforts would extend beyond the June 30th end to the project manager position but the county could find other funding to keep it going. 

Commissioner Tony Debone also wants to examine Health Services’ ongoing COVID program, “Aligning with the community expectations about the efforts we’re doing is something we could probably look at in the near future. These are the duties and this is the need that we aren’t even seeing as much anymore.”  Health Services says the county’s current COVID recovery efforts are now focused on vulnerable people, and monitoring for outbreaks.