Bend’s homeless face a lack of warming shelters

As the temperature continues to drop, the homeless population in Central Oregon will be looking for places to stay when it gets too cold to be outside.

One of the organizations trying to create warming shelters at which people can temporarily come in and warm up is Shepherd’s House Ministries. It has a warming shelter in Redmond, but because of a few obstacles unique to Bend, Shepherd’s House is still trying to open one in the region’s largest city.

The reasons include a shortage of money and manpower for the organizations that want to make it happen. There’s also not much communication between those organizations and the agencies that would help set up the shelters.

“So far, we’ve had interest,” Bend Deputy Fire Chief Larry Medina said Tuesday. “We just haven’t had anybody come to us asking for an approval or any help trying to make it safe for that need.”

Also, the partners an organization such as Shepherd’s House would need are busier in Bend than they would be in other places.

“It is a challenge to house homeless people,” Shepherd’s House Drector of Development David Notari said. “It makes it difficult when either a church or a business has to give up some of that space to run programs. They have conflicting priorities at times. So that is part of the challenge.”

As a result, when the overnight shelters are filled up, people left out in the cold have to improvise to stay warm.

“Basically, people gather together,” Notari said. “They’ll go to homeless camps. They’ll find an overpass. They’ll try to warm themselves, which is challenging, because in the really cold season, that’s not very sustainable, and I think a lot of those people do have issues with exposure.”

Shepherd’s House has been able to bring five donors together to match donations of up to $190,000 through the end of the year. Some of that money could be key in getting a warming shelter in Bend.

Visit the Shepherd’s House’s website here.