Residents say they’re relieved after Deschutes County commissioners vote 2-1 to move paroled sex offender housing

(Update: Adding video, comment from resident)

Adair tearfully shares personal incident; lawyer warns of possible legal action over 'economic segregation'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – After a great deal of sometimes emotional testimony Wednesday morning, most strongly opposed to a recently opened transitional home for sex offenders on parole and probation in a southeast Bend triplex, Deschutes County commissioners were wrestling with the issues when Chair Patti Adair revealed tearfully her own, personal connection.

“This is personal for me,” she said, going on to briefly explain how, visiting the University of Oregon years ago as a high schooler, she and others looked down from a window and “saw a woman who was going to be raped” – and their intervention brought police and kept it from happening.

Later, during a lunch break, Adair told NewsChannel 21 how it was the first time she'd spoken publicly about that UO campus visit, as a senior at Heppner High School, when “we saw this guy grab this woman, and she screamed. We yelled down the window at the guy to leave her alone, and the police came.”

“Did that ever influence how careful I am, especially at night,” she said.

It's what worried residents in southeast Bend who objected to the siting on Wilson Avenue are calling a citizen comeback story.

"Feeling good," Ryan Rudnick said. "I'm thankful to see so many members of the public come out and speak out in opposition to this unbelievably inconsiderate and poorly thought-out idea."

The county used state grant funds to buy the triplex for houseless men on supervision by Parole and Probation and at a high risk of houselessness otherwise.

When it came time for commissioners to decide what, if anything to do to change the situation for a neighborhood that feels it's been targeted, it wasn’t easy.

Commissioner Tony DeBone suggested, and eventually won 2-1 approval of staff direction to look within a year for a new Bend or Redmond neighborhood to buy a parcel and build a home to move the transitional housing facility for Parole & Probation -- making that addition well-known, so no one who moves or buys a home there would face the surprise, even shock these residents face.

Adair repeated what many had noted: that “these people are in our society, in our community” already, coming back to the county from jail or prison.

Adair said she had called for the hearing on the already approved but much-criticized facility because “my heart breaks for this neighborhood.”

Commissioner Phil Chang said communication with the neighborhood “while more than what was legally required but far les than neighbors would have liked. I am sorry about that as well, but I want to emphasize that this program is our public safety program at work.”

Chang said his own child attends the school nearest to the triplex, and said: “We did not target this neighborhood,” but chose a property that had been on the market for a while and was the only one found that met the criteria.

“I do not believe we should be considering changing the program right now,” he said.

Adair said she would gone door to door in more extensive fashion, if she knew how much that notification process had fallen short. She also would have had serious second thoughts about putting the facility “into a house right in a neighborhood where people are struggling to feed their families.”

Noting over 1,400 petition signatures in hand, Adair said, “I think we in the county need to do better. I would really like to have this moved somewhere else.”

There may not have been a requirement to be 1,000 feet from parks, for example, but “the buck stops with us,” she said. “I’m not happy with what we did. I feel like the county -- we could have done way better.”

“It sounds like we’re on different sides,” Adair said, and Chang agreed: “Three different ideas around the table.”

DeBone also, mentioned that he just visited the triplex and saw upgrades underway, with two supervised people living there now.

Chang disputed the idea of finding a new place to put the program: “My worry with this proposal is, anywhere we want to establish this program, neighbors are not going to be supportive. I don’t know how a proposal to move the location doesn’t land us in the same exact place.”

DeBone agreed, to a degree, saying if it was proposed on Bend’s Westside, “we have 3 million different attorneys sittin’ here, saying they don’t want it here.” But he still sought a change.

Chang said the goal of such programs is to further reduce the risk of re-offense,  for everyone.”

Adair made a motion to sell the property and look for one in a more rural location, away from parks. It died for lack of a second.

DeBone then made his motion to acquire a property in the next year, with an intention of building a house for this purpose.

Chang wouldn’t second that motion, “not because it wouldn’t be a decent solution -- I just don’t think it’s feasible. Adair then weighed in: “I’ll make it happen. I’ll second it.”

Chang asked, “Where are we going to find the funds to do this?” Adair didn’t seem worried about that aspect: “Funds keep showing up all the time. I keep hearing more and more funds.” But Chang called it “premature to vote on this before we have a fiscal plan.”

Adair: “As a chair, I will vote yes. I take this to heart.”

DeBone noted that in the recent state legislation on housing issues, the same group, Free on the Outside, was awarded $850,000 to do something more in Deschutes County.”

The newly approved direction will be brought back to commissioners in about a month, to see what’s next and what can happen.

Numerous southeast Bend residents had voiced strong opposition to the program for paroled sex offenders during Wednesday morning's public hearing and there was talk of legal action as well.

Much of the objections focused on the facility being close to many families with children in a working-class neighborhood and within 1,000 feet of two parks. But there also was broader objection to what is seen by many as economic segregation, that several homeless shelters and other such facilities are located on Bend's Eastside, not on its more affluent Westside, across the Deschutes River.

Late last year, neighbors who lived near the triplex started a petition drive to stop the program, gathering hundreds of signatures.

“Will you have compassion for a neighborhood that is disproportionately impacted by your decisions?” asked Bend attorney Mike McLane, retained by one of the affected homeowners.

“There could be a legal problem for the county,” McLane said, asking if commissioners are considering a location on the Westside and noting a California lawsuit focused on the issue of economic segregation.

“Economic segregation is wrong, and that’s what’s being done to this neighborhood … and it very well may be illegal,” McLane said.

Longtime Bend resident Nancy Prosser said 50 years ago, Bend was “one town,” but a growing disparity has occurred that to her is “unconscionable.”

“We refuse to be the backroom for ‘Brand Bend,’ the beautiful Westside,” Prosser said. “People in Bend have a growing outrage about what’s happening to our beautiful community, the one we’ve loved for so long. … A lot of us see what’s going on, and we are going to resist. Outrage is growing.”

County Community Justice Director Deevy Holcomb talked about the supervision and efforts to make sure the people staying there are monitored. But she also acknowledged errors in public outreach before the facility opened, including a flyer only in English and people who didn’t’ speak Spanish. She acknowledged only one organization, Free on the Outside, applied to manage the high-barrier facility and got a low initial score of 71 percent.

“A lot of people don’t want anything to do with those folks, so it wasn’t a surprise to get only one” expression of interest, Holcomb said.

Several speakers addressed a lack of transparency in what area residents were told, with some offering specific proposals for other more suitable places, such as county-owned land, where such a facility could be placed farther from families.

“This is just plain wrong,” Jeff England said. “Area residents shouldn’t live in constant fear.”

One of the call-in speakers, Ashley, broke down into tears: “At the end of the day, it’s our children being put at risk.”

Below is the staff presentation provided by Holcomb and Deputy County Administrator Erik Kropp: