Deschutes County commissioners revisit, vote 3-0 to back revised plans for Juniper Ridge homeless ‘temporary safe stay area’
(Update: Bend City Council sets special meeting; mayor reaction to county vote)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A week after things went sideways on joint plans to close much of the Juniper Ridge area north of Bend to homeless camping and create a 170-acre temporary safe stay area, Deschutes county commissioners voted 3-0 Wednesday to adopt a revised joint resolution with a much scaled-down location and 50-50 cost split.
City and county staff had been busy working behind the scenes to salvage the plans since last week’s commissioner meeting, at which the three could not agree on a path forward as sought by the city, based on the agreement unanimously approved by both elected bodies at a Sept. 5 joint meeting.
Mayor Melanie Kebler and other city officials had expressed strong disappointment and frustration with last week’s outcome, saying deadlines for contracting the use of federal grant dollars might mean the city would have to go it alone and shift their efforts to safe parking projects in other areas, within the city.
Three options for how to proceed were presented to commissioners at Wednesday’s revisit – the original joint resolution, a Voluntary Compliance Agreement and a revised joint resolution as proposed by commission Chair Patti Adair.
Among other concerns, notably Commissioner Phil Chang's worry about land-use challenges, commissioners had expressed misgivings about stating the temporary safe stay area would be 170 acres, calling that too large an area to be able to provide the needed services and case management.
This time, Adair proposed to reduce the TSSA to 40 acres west of the railroad tracks and east of Highway 97, reduced further to 20 acres in the second year (2026). Commissioners also learned an intergovernmental agreement approved by staff will reimburse the county for some of its previous expenses and commits the city and county to a 50-50 split of the costs to set up and manage the TSSA.
“We know we need to do something, and do something together,” Adair said, stressing the need for service providers to meet with the residents four times a day - “a thousand times better than every one or two weeks.”
Kebler said of the VCA approach, “That’s probably not going to work for the city,” as that proposed document leaves out the TSSA. She said the city believes there “needs to be a legal path” for the plans to create the safe area.
Chang said, “We are basically in a place where we have to decide whose staff we want to support. It’s not a great place to be.”
But Adair countered, “We have to think about our community first of all,” noting the threat of more fires like the one that forced a major evacuation this summer.
“I just think we have got to step up,” she said, noting the turn to cooler weather and winter on the way. “It’s a perfect time for us to come together and actually do something.”
She also noted the similar situation with homeless camping on public land off Antler Avenue on Redmond’s Eastside, "an issue for 20 years now," where a similar managed camp is in the works. “It’s still going to be very difficult” to make it happen, she said, but “we’ve got to condense what we’re doing, to offer more help.”
Chang said the area needs dog control, for example, and a ban on unsanctioned fires: “It can’t be no man’s land out there.”
“It can’t be,” Adair agreed. “We’ve had people killed by dogs. We have to step up and make sure the people there realize they are on public land, and there are rules we have to follow.”
As Chang again expressed his reluctance and concerns, Commissioner Tony DeBone said, “I do support practicing a solution. We’ve been stuck in this quagmire.”
Before and after the vote, DeBone said he would like to get a progress report every two weeks, while Adair said they may have to seek service providers out of the area, having learned at a joint workshop with Redmond city councilors Tuesday evening, “I don’t think anyone locally wants to do the Redmond project.”
Chang gave a few more comments before reluctantly getting aboard with his colleagues: “While I really believe that we could have proceeded in a number of ways, if this is the only way we’re going to get our agreement on Sept. 5th implemented, I will vote yes.”
The Bend City Council will hold a special meeting at 3:30 p.m. next Tuesday to take up the joint resolution.
After the count commissioners' vote, Kebler shared a reaction with NewsChannel 21: "I am very pleased that the County Commission has reconsidered their decision from last week and that we can now move forward with our agreement from our joint meeting in September. I want to thank staff for working very hard in the last week to help compromise on the necessary resolution we needed to move forward with creating more safety for our community in the Juniper Ridge area."
