‘You’re just chasing the problem’: East Bend residents react to potential new vehicle camping code

(Update: Adding video, KTVZ.COM Poll, comments from nearby residents)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A year after the sweep of homeless encampments and RVs on Hunnell Road, the City of Bend is looking to tighten up its on-street vehicle camping code and bring it more in line with the rules limiting tent camping on city rights of way.

In mid-August, city officials put stickers on vehicles parked along Watt Way, saying they needed to be moved by September 3rd as part of the city's 72-hour vehicle camping code.

"We have our own RV that we've had parked right here, and we had to move ours, saying they were going to tow it in like three days, so we had to mover ours to a piece of property out of town," Jayson Halsey said Wednesday.

Halsey just moved to an apartment in East Bend after living in an RV for years. His RV received a notice last week.

"I don't know how long they've been here," he said, pointing to the others still on the street. But they told them two weeks ago that they had to move, and they haven't moved."

The current city code states that camping is allowed if vehicles are legally parked and not in the right of way for more than 72 hours. But a new proposal headed to the city council this week could allow the city's 24-hour maximum tent camping code to be applied to vehicles.

At last month's meeting, Assistant City Attorney Ian Leitheiser presented a timeline for councilors as they discussed what changes to make. The proposed new code would make all camping, tent and vehicle, limited to three per block for 24 hours maximum, and not allowed within 1,000 feet of shelters or residential uses.

When asked if 24 hours would be enough, Halsey said, "Probably not. And if they do that, what's going to happen is they're going to be pushed somewhere else. So they're just going here, they're going to move it right down the road, and then they start the process over and they have to move again."

"Telling them they have to move. Okay, you're now you're just chasing the problem around town. You're complicating their path to stability is really what that kind of says to me," said nearby neighbor Wyatt Gaines.

Residents living near the encampments worry about safety and say the city is not doing enough about the problem.

One resident said, "It's not being enforced. These two trailers that are on the street now have been there for quite some time. They need to be in a safe place, and we need to be safe."

David Abbas, the city's director of transportation & mobility, said in a statement to NewsChannel 21 officials have made a significant reduction in long-standing camps, but added that they do not currently have the funding to support more shelters or managed camps.

"I'd do the exact same thing that they're doing and go down the road somewhere else. You'd just be in a different area in front of a different apartment complex. That's just what it is."

Below is the presentation given to councilors on August 21st: