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As Bend city councilors hold ‘listening session’ on affordable housing issues, homeless man warms up in City Hall lobby

We talked to residents downtown after community survey released

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend city councilors met on Thursday to discuss and gather input about two of the top issues residents say are of concern in Central Oregon: affordable housing and homelessness.

As council members and the public arrived for the "listening session," the first of two held Thursday, they passed by a man named Dwayne who was lying in the City Hall lobby. He said he went inside to get warm after a cold night outdoors.

The issue of homelessness has fallen at the council's doorstep.

After seeing the man before the meeting, and spending two hours conversing on the best ways to tackle this complex issue, one of the newest city councilors, Mike Riley, told me more social services are very much needed in Bend.

"Not only do we need to provide housing to people, houselessness is a housing problem, it's also a supportive services problem, and we need both of those things together," he said.

The city survey, conducted in December, found 36 percent of respondents say houselessness is the top issue in the Bend area, with 25 percent saying it's affordable housing. But 7 out of 10 people say their quality of life in Bend is either excellent or good.

After wondering if these statistics hold up in the community, I headed to downtown Bend to get reaction from locals on how they feel about living in Bend, and if they plan on leaving.

"I'm extremely happy in Bend," said resident Rachael Davis. "I just love the outdoors, I love my job, I have a good support system here, just all the things it has to offer."

Another resident, Amy Weinsheim, said of Bend, "It still retains a lot of its small-town flavor. We have great local businesses that are such a pleasure to be a customer at, and or work in."

According to the survey, 70% of Bend residents say their quality of life is either "excellent" or "good." That's a drop of 18% from the year 2020, when 88% of residents said their quality of life was either excellent or good.

 The same survey also found fewer Bend residents list transportation as a high priority than three years ago, with results showing 20 percent say roads and bike lanes are high priority.

Riley said, "We need to show solutions, and I think this council is very solution-oriented, and wants to do things that really make a difference. That's what we've been talking about all morning so far is houselessness and housing affordability."

 According to the community survey, 41 percent of Bend residents say the community is going in the right direction, which is actually a higher figure than found by the survey consultants in most other communities around the state.

Article Topic Follows: Central Oregon

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Blake Mayfield

Blake Mayfield is a multimedia journalist for NewsChannel 21. Learn more about Blake here.

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