An outdoor homeless shelter may be in the works in east Bend after the Bend City Council approved a contract with the nonprofit Central Oregon Villages.

On Wednesday, the council unanimously voted to enter into a $45,300 contract with Central Oregon Villages to start the process of establishing an outdoor homeless shelter at Desert Streams Church.

The site is about 2 acres at the corner of 27th Street and Bear Creek Road.

The money for the contract comes from American Rescue Plan Act funding.

“We want them to move through our program into long term housing and back into society,” said Nicky Merritt, executive director of Central Oregon Villages, on Wednesday.

Central Oregon Villages was the only organization that answered a request for proposals from the city last fall to develop managed outdoor shelters. The city has struggled for more than a year to get a managed outdoor shelter on the ground to mitigate Bend’s growing homeless population.

The contract outlines a vision of 20 Pallet structures to form a temporary outdoor shelter that will prioritize women and children, but won’t limit its guests to only women and children. Pallet structures are quickly assembled standalone tiny homes made by the public benefit company Pallet.

The site would provide portable toilets, water stations and have shower truck services, along with daily food provided, according to the contract.

Entry requirements will include a rule for guests to not use drugs or alcohol while living at the shelter and to participate in case management.

The first phase of the contract is aimed at gaining public feedback from the community and surrounding neighborhoods and refining plans for the site and operations, according to city documents. The second phase, which would have to be approved separately, is when the outdoor shelter would be built.

But the project has already garnered backlash. Multiple people testified on Wednesday against the concept, and a website called “Stop Central Oregon Villages” has already come online.

“If you let this go through you are attacking me personally because my property values are going to go through the basement,” said Tom Stuntz, a resident who said he lives within a “stone’s throw” from the proposed location.

Concerns raised Wednesday echoed similar ones that have arisen when previous locations were proposed, such as sites on Ninth Street and at Juniper Ridge. Neighbors raised concerns about an increase in crime, though no local data has shown homeless people commit more crimes because the Bend Police Department doesn’t track it.

Some businesses testified with concerns about how a nearby managed homeless camp could impact business, but in general people asked the City Council to keep this model of housing away from residential areas.

“I’m not against (Central Oregon Villages). I’m just against where you are putting it,” Patricia Shea said during public comment.

Chuck Hemingway, a board member of Central Oregon Villages, decried the efforts to denigrate the project by sharing a Willamette Week article highlighting the closure of a managed homeless camp in Portland due to violence.

Hemingway said the area in Portland already was known for violence before the camp moved in and that the camp was mismanaged, and the article is misleading for what is being proposed in Bend.

“The implication is that Central Oregon Villages would be operating that way and that’s wholly inaccurate,” Hemingway said.

Jim Porter, of Central Oregon Villages and Bend’s former police chief, said he would never recommend something that he believes would put people in danger.

“We are proposing a solution to unmanaged camps and what occurs around them,” Porter said Wednesday.

Some people in public comments accused the city of passing controversial shelter code changes to allow this shelter project to happen, but city staff said this is incorrect.

This shelter, if approved, would be approved under state law that does not allow cities to deny shelters based on zoning or local land use regulations, Councilor Megan Perkins said Wednesday.

With the contract signed, Central Oregon Villages will now start outreach to the surrounding neighborhoods about the project.