Cars and campers park along Hunnell Road in Bend in September.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan said she favors declaring a “state of emergency” to deal with Oregon’s growing homelessness crisis during a visit to Bend on Thursday.

Drazan visited Bend’s Veterans Village for a discussion about the crisis with local nonprofits and leaders just weeks ahead of the Nov. 8 general election. The governor’s race is one of the most contested gubernatorial races in the nation. Drazan is running against Democrat Tina Kotek and nonaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson.

“Establishing a homelessness state of emergency gives you that authority — frankly, that power — to be able to…innovate and get real serious about finding support services and also ensuring on the other side of that there is accountability,” Drazan said.

Drazan said Thursday, and previously, that it is not a crime to be homeless, but she said she’d encourage the enforcement of local ordinances for people who live unsheltered.

“I don’t hand anyone anything on a silver platter,” Drazan said Thursday.

Included in the discussion were Cheri Helt, candidate for Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair and Erik Tobiason, the executive director of the Bend Heroes Foundation, the organization that helped build the Veterans Village. Also in attendance were David Nieradka, a coordinator at Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, Megan Martin of nonprofit Furnish Hope and Randy Fenimore, a landowner near China Hat Road where a substantial portion of Bend’s unhoused population live.

Local leaders talked about the prevalence of fentanyl, inadequate mental health and substance use services and an overall lack of housing as major barriers to moving toward solutions for homelessness.

“It’s a sad situation,” said Nieradka, who is a veteran. “I don’t see an end in sight.”

People have been living in Bend’s Veterans’ Village for almost a year. Twelve of its 15 units are currently occupied, and since it opened its doors last November, seven people have graduated to permanent housing. Those involved in building Veterans Village say it was — and still is — the epitome of community collaboration when little help from state and federal government was available.

“One of the things that makes homelessness so hard to approach is that you need an entire community to fix it,” Helt said.

Helt, of Bend, worked with Drazan in the Legislature when she was the Republican representative from the 54th District and Drazan was minority leader from the 39th District. Helt said less rhetoric and more results are needed when it comes to homelessness, and she thinks Drazan can do that.