‘Is there one right answer? There’s not’: Sisters community comes together for a conversation about houselessness

SISTERS, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The homeless population in Sisters has been steadily increasing, according to the latest Central Oregon Point-in-Time Count. More than 100 people gathered Sunday at the new Sisters Elementary School for a community conversation about houselessness. 

According to the PIT count, conducted early this year, 64 people were homeless in the Sisters area last year, up from last year, when there were 55. Overall, in Central Oregon, homelessness increased 9%.  

"We had on a Sunday afternoon over 100 people coming and speaking with each other, with their neighbors, with their fellow community members about this issue," Sisters City Manager Jordan Wheeler said Monday. "We had members from the houseless community there as well. I think the Sisters Country does a fantastic job of approaching these sort of issues."

The owner of The Paper Place in Sisters, Joshua Smith, said he attended the community conversation about houselessness to learn from his neighbors and hear what they had to say.

"Smith said, "We all have different opinions on not just what our concerns are, but how do we come to conclusions? Is there one right answer? There's not."

The meeting began with local agencies giving a brief introduction to services they're providing. Deschutes County Behavioral Health did outreach by surveying about 33 people, asking what their needs are.

The Sisters Community Leadership Initiative currently has a route to collect trash in the national forest around Sisters. It consists of cleanup events and weekly garbage collection from various camps.

People who attended the community conversation were split up into groups with different note-takers, covering three questions.

Wheeler said they asked, "What are your ideas? What are your concerns? What questions do you have? So the note takers took copious notes about all the ideas. Really, these were conversations at these tables between community members, you know, talking about these ideas."

Smith said there were eight people in his group who voiced similar concerns.

"There had been a couple of fires started in the past few years from the homeless encampments, the houseless," he said. "So that was one of the big concerns that we had. The other was environmental. There's the trash issue - people love coming to Sisters and riding the trails."

Wheeler said the notes from the discussions groups were collected and will be analyzed, then shared with the community.