Jeremy Brooks walks up the steps of his new apartment after being the first person to complete the St. Vincent de Paul of Bend’s tiny home village program, known as St. Vincent's Place.

The new housing village at St. Vincent de Paul of Bend, designed to help those struggling to remain housed because of a criminal background, poor rental or credit histories, is now showing the first signs of being a viable solution to housing insecurity in the area.

Read more: St. Vincent de Paul opens tiny home village

Low-cost, low-barrier housing is now a reality for those who can’t afford a place to live due to their criminal history, addiction or mental health issues.

Jeremy Brooks is the first person to complete the St. Vincent de Paul’s tiny home village program, known as St. Vincent’s Place.

The program provides inexpensive housing, allowing participants to save enough money to join the regular housing market. The program requires participants to save $5,000 before they can move into apartments administered by St. Vincent.

It allowed Brooks to save money and then move into an apartment just behind the tiny home village. His rent is $900 a month.

“It is like I have some breathing room to have some rent paid for a good amount of time, so I can handle some things on my car, and do some budgeting and buy some things for the house I need. Really get back on my feet,” Brooks said.

Brooks knows what it is like to work hard and still struggle to get ahead, but he is grateful for a program that allowed him to pull himself out of a dire situation, he said.

Brooks, 38, of Bend, worked two jobs while he was living at St. Vincent’s Place, the 10-unit tiny home village in Bend behind the organization’s food bank on Third Street. He waited tables at Olive Garden and was a banquet server at the Riverhouse Convention Center. He often heard policymakers discuss the homeless crisis in Bend.

“I do banquets for the City Council. I do banquets for government meetings, and I hear them talk a lot about these issues,” Brooks said. “And I listen in on some of this stuff. And I hear a lot of talk, but don’t see a lot of action.”

Brooks, a native Central Oregonian, had been struggling with housing for about two years, after he accidentally burned down the house he was renting, which tanked his rental history and forced him to file for bankruptcy.

For Brooks, his struggle with housing wasn’t about money. He could come up with $6,000 or $7,000 for first and second month’s rent and security deposit with no problem, he said, but because of the fire, there were many obstacles placed in his way.

“If I still have poor credit, and I still have poor rental history. What am I going to do with it? You can still go rent a room from someone, but until you build the credit or you find some way to build some rental history, it is kind of tough to figure it out,” Brooks said.

During the period after the fire, Brooks lived at Bethlehem Inn and at Oxford House, an addiction treatment center in Bend. Brooks said at the time he struggled with alcohol. Brooks said he saw firsthand how the system only perpetuates the issue of homelessness, and how it is not hard to get stuck in a trap.

“It’s a dog eat dog world out there,” Brooks said. “It is really hard to save, and it is really hard to get into investments. It is really hard to turn that around. If you don’t do the right things early, you just get stuck in this kind of loop.”

On a recent Friday morning, a group of people toured the tiny home village during an open house and fundraising event. Gary Hewitt, the director of St. Vincent de Paul of Bend, was busy making his rounds and touting the program’s success.

“We are trying to get passed the stigma of being homeless. That is what this is all about,” Hewitt said. “The essence of the program is, get a job, work, save money, abide by the contract. It’s those four things really.”

Hewitt said the program is designed to help people save up money because it is difficult to find housing otherwise. The program will also help with the process of finding housing, Hewitt said.

Hewitt said criminal background checks are another obstacle to people getting into stable housing.

“Our thought is we put them in our housing and three to five years down the road, now their criminal convictions are seven years old or older, which means they are not going to come up on a standard background check,” Hewitt said. “Now they’ve got a three- to five-year rental history, which is what a property manager is looking for. Now they are rentable to anybody. The thought is they go through our village, and into our housing and then eventually on to any housing.”

Also at the open house was Isaac Montoya, the community health and resource manager and on-site supervisor at the tiny home village. Montoya is also the only staff member on site. He said having a safe place and an address, two things the program provides, are a big deal for someone who has struggled with homelessness and government sweeps.

“These people that are living here, just recently told me that, they don’t know where they would be if this wasn’t here,” Montoya said. “They are hearing about their friends getting moved, and they are just so grateful to be here that it gets me choked up.”

Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang was on site, peeking into the village’s only vacant unit, to get a sense of the facilities. He said he was impressed by how clean, organized and well thought out the village is. He said the village is one of several possible approaches to Deschutes County’s homelessness issue.

“There are a whole lot of proposals for programs, facilities, and policies to address homelessness swirling around in our community. When I heard about this facility, I thought it sounded very promising and I was able to come and speak with Gary (Hewitt). Learn a little more about it. Visit during the construction,” Chang said. “So, I don’t think I was skeptical about this facility at any point. I had a whole lot of hope for it. My biggest concern was whether they would get it to the finish line and get it built or not.”

Chang said the county played a role in getting the facility finished by providing some of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding to help move things ahead. He also said a tremendous amount of philanthropic and volunteer support from the community made the program possible, and he said he sees the program as a proven and successful strategy.

“We know that when you give people a little bit of stability and a little bit of support, they are interested in going to work and obtaining permanent housing. And the people at St. Vincent’s place right now are perfect examples of that,” Chang said. “With the right support and structure those folks have a shot at making it out of homelessness. If you provide people with stepping stones, there are going to be a lot of people willing to take those steps.”