BEND, OR -- Deschutes County Commissioners continue to look for ways to create more safe parking sites - locations where the unhoused can live in an RV or car while receiving case management services. 

Commissioner Patti Adair has asked for months for more safe parking locations. At Monday's work session, she expressed frustration only four churches have signed up for the program. "It’s been incredibly successful. And I would love the message to get out that when you actually have safe parking in your parking lot, it actually makes your entire property safer." She added, "Fewer kids come in and have parties in the middle of the night, all kinds of things. Because these people actually look out for the church property. It’s quite amazing."

Commissioners discussed potential code changes to make it easier for shelter sites like safe parking to come online in unincorporated areas. But they noted much of the land in rural Deschutes County is zoned Exclusive Farm Use (EFU) which, under state land use laws, isn’t allowed to be used for emergency shelter.

Also Monday, County Health Services Director Janice Garceau provided an update on homeless outreach efforts. She told said neighborhoods aren’t willing to support more shelter sites because of what they hear about the homeless community; much of which she says is inaccurate, "What I have observed over and over again are horror stories being told in public because they are eye-catching and attention grabbing, and scary for all of us who live in the community." She told Commissioners, "We are going to struggle to ask our neighbors to welcome the people we serve into their community if we only talk about how dangerous these folks are. The vast majority of the people we serve are not dangerous. In fact, they are ten times more likely to be victims of crime."

Garceau said, "I’m just inviting our community, our leaders to reflect what’s true about the vast majority of the people we’re serving. Which is they are in quite dire straits. They are welcoming of assistance; they may not use it the way we would always want them to. But that may be because of conditions they’re experiencing that most of us have no idea."