Bend Police officers stand by as the city clears a homeless camp Tuesday.  

Dave Shepherd is no stranger to moving when he must.

He carted loads of his belongings from his tent Tuesday morning, taking multiple trips with a shopping cart and a wagon. He and his girlfriend had lived among a cluster of around 30 tents near Crux Fermentation Project. The city of Bend cleared the area Tuesday morning.

Before living near Crux, Shepherd, 48, lived on Second Street. Before that, he was at Emerson Avenue. He’s moved six times in total, he said.

“It’s always the same,” he said.

He predicted the time to move again would come soon, especially after he learned of the city’s new camping code, which has been in effect since March 1, he said. The codes dictate when, where and in what manner people can camp in the city. On Tuesday, Shepherd and his girlfriend moved a few hundred yards away on Aune Street.

“How do they expect us to get better or move on and follow those rules?” he said.

Shepherd lost his job five years ago and wasn’t able to pay rent without an income. He’s been in Central Oregon for nearly 15 years, he said.

“Once you’re labeled as homeless, people don’t want to hire you, and you’re this and you’re that,” he said.

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Half of the camps near Crux are on city-owned right of way, and the other half are on Oregon Department of Transportation right of way. The city hired a contractor, Central Oregon Bio Solutions, to clear its half Tuesday. ODOT crews will arrive Wednesday to clear the camps on ODOT property, said Kacey Davey, a regional spokesperson for the department.

The sweep Tuesday is just one of four scheduled for the coming days, according to Davey.

ODOT intends to remove homeless camps from other properties by April 18: the nearby Colorado Avenue and U.S. Highway 97 interchange, the Reed Market Road and Highway 97 intersection and the highway overpass that crosses Division Street, according to Davey.

“Camping in the right of way is not a safe place to be,” Davey said.

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As people were leaving where they’d been camping for days, weeks and months near Crux on Tuesday morning, some were shouting in anger. But most left solemnly.

“We’re looking forward to the camp near our tasting room being cleared out as it has been problematic lately. It didn’t start out that way, but it has definitely gotten worse over time, resulting in frequent calls to the police,” Jason Randles, the marketing director for Crux, wrote in an email.

Staff and customers haven’t always felt safe, especially after dark, Randles said.

He estimated campers have been there for around five to six months.

Since the start of the year, there have been roughly 25 calls for service in the area, said Bend Police Department spokesperson Sheila Miller. That’s up from single-digit calls between June and September of last year, she said. Calls ranged from suspicious behavior, trespassing and domestic disputes to health and welfare checks and drug activity, Miller said.

The city of Bend posted notices in the area on April 3, which is more time than required by the city’s camping code, according to Anne Aurand, a spokesperson for the city.

It’s the first sweep that has occurred with the new camping code in effect.

“The camping code itself was created to avoid larger unsanctioned camps. The code limits size and growth of camps. It limits how long someone can stay in the right of way. So that’s the biggest tool,” Aurand wrote in an email.

Under the code, the city can close an area for up to 14 days, but the city’s intent with the campers near Crux is to permanently bar people from camping there, Aurand said.

The city informed the Deschutes County Coordinated Homelessness Response Office when the notices of removal were originally posted, Aurand said. The office is then supposed to dispatch service providers to offer support and resources.

No service providers were present Tuesday.

Cheyenne Purrington, the director of the coordinated office, did not respond to The Bulletin’s repeated requests for comment.

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ODOT has its own system of emailing local service providers and agencies ahead of posting notices of removal, which is typically two weeks ahead of time.

Jamal Thomson and Vicca Sawyer didn’t quite know where they were going to go ahead of cleanup crews showing up Tuesday morning, but they knew they wanted to avoid confrontation.

Being homeless is temporary for both of them, they told The Bulletin on Monday.

Thomson had a job interview set up for 2 p.m. on Tuesday, and Sawyer is on the waitlist for Section 8 housing. Sawyer was going to go to the Lighthouse Navigation Center, a nearby homeless shelter operated by Shepherd’s House Ministries, to see if there were any open beds, she said. Thomson had no idea where he was going to go.

“We’re just here surviving,” Thomson said.

Both were gone before crews began clearing Tuesday morning.