BEND, OR -- Deschutes County Commissioners heard Wednesday about progress at the houseless encampments on county-owned property at Juniper Ridge north of Bend.
Health Services Director Janice Garceau told commissioners about 20 people live there, with hundreds more on city and BLM land, “It is definitely cleaner; it is definitely somewhat safer and people are definitely making use of resources without damaging them and some people are leaving for regular housing and I would count those things as successes… and I think there are also challenges.”
Since summer, in response to safety and health code vioations, the county has provided sanitation, water, and security in the area, but commissioners must decide if, and how they will pay for the effort after current funding runs out on June 30th.
Commissioner Phil Chang noted the unsanctioned camps are seeing some successes, “I would much prefer to have something more like a complete managed camp for people. But, there's lessons to be learned essentially from this experience.”
“So that means, yeah, we're going to… I would support, supporting people out there at the level we have and knowing that we're in full on code violation. We're not even following our own rules and laws,” Commissioner Tony DeBone said.
Commissioners will get another update in May.
They could fund the $200-thousand project with ARPA money set aside to address homelessness, the General Fund, or put it in the next fiscal year’s budget, which begins July 1st.
