BEND, OR The city of Bend needs to adjust the rooming situation at its Franklin Avenue Shelter.

Amy Fraley, Bend’s Houselessness Services Senior Program Manager tells KBND News the shelter’s operator, Shepherd’s House, determined there are many non-related people using larger rooms intended for families.

“To maximize the shelter space at Franklin by allowing individuals that don't pool their finances to live in the same room. So basically, it is so there can be roommates. They do have a number of individuals that would like to room together. But they're not families. So, they want to maximize the space by allowing people to do that. We thought pooling financial resources could be, for instance, sharing just like food costs or something like that if folks went out together and did shopping, but it's a little more involved than that,” Fraley says as of last week, 52 people are staying at the former Rainbow Motel, “Our plan for that facility is to be at 60 by October. So, they are well on their way.”

Deschutes County Commissioners will review a requested language change to the grant funding agreement at Wednesday’s meeting, to accommodate the roommate shift.

It’s a wording change from ‘non-congregant shelter’ to just ‘shelter’.