The community is invited to the Tuesday groundbreaking on the transitional housing project for homeless residents known as Oasis Village in Redmond, which is expected to be operational by the end of the year, officials with Oasis Village said.

The groundbreaking is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at 2525 E. state Highway 126, and those involved said the project is on track to have a community building with bathrooms, showers, a kitchen and laundry facilities, and 15 100-square-foot shelters on site and operational prior to a Jan. 10 deadline. The deadline was set as a condition for a $975,000 grant which came as part of funding allocated by Gov. Tina Kotek to tackle the state’s homelessness crisis.

The grant is in addition to another $967,500 in grant funding from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding, the state of Oregon and the Central Oregon Health Council. Funding support has also come from community organizations including the Rotary Club of Redmond, NeighborImpact, churches and private individuals.

The project garnered significant support from the city of Redmond, the Oregon Department of Transportation, H.A. McCoy Engineering & Surveying, Hayden Homes and Deschutes County, which made 12-acres of land available for the project.

John Roberts, Redmond’s deputy city manager, said legislation related to the construction of emergency shelters passed in 2021, House Bill 2006, made it possible to fast track the project.

“It has been really refreshing to work with so many collaborative entities and organizations to achieve a common goal. I almost feel like it is a textbook exercise in regional coordination and collaboration,” Roberts said.

Guests, who must be adult men and women, will be able to stay in the village anywhere from six months to two years as long as they are working toward more permanent housing, Eleanor Bessonette, the executive director of Oasis Village, said at a meeting with city officials on Wednesday.

“We are shooting for the end of the year to be able to open and have clients in the village,” Bessonette said.

Bessonette said Oasis Village is confident it will make the deadline with time to spare.

“We see housing as a whole continuum. It is a piece. It is not going to solve all of our problems, but it is a piece along the way to help those that are houseless in our area,” Bessonette said.

The gated community will eventually contain 30 heated tiny shelters, a garden, a community center building, a dog park and a storage area for vehicles among other amenities. The village will be staffed full time, including with case workers and peer support workers.

Bob Bohac, the chair of the Oasis Village board, said the village is open to anybody struggling with stable housing in the area, but is meant to eventually be for the 50% of Redmond’s homeless population living on Bureau of Land Management land east of the city known colloquially as “the Junipers.”

“Very frankly right now, the folks in the Junipers, the largest chunk of them, don’t have a lot of faith and hope. So, what we want to demonstrate to the public as well as to folks in the Junipers is that this is a way out and a way up,” Bohac said.

Bohac said the project needs roughly $150,000 to $175,000 to finish building the 15 tiny homes, and has already raised more than $50,000 from the community. All funding for other construction needs has been met, he said.

Ed Fitch, Redmond’s mayor, said he views Oasis Village as the organization on the cutting edge of Redmond’s homelessness problem.

“Oasis has been the catalyst towards a kind of global solution towards the homeless problem in Redmond,” Fitch said. “They had the vision for that area, and we were able to procure a lot of grant money to kind of jump start the whole thing.”

Fitch said one of the most important parts of the Oasis Village project is that so many organizations and community partners have contributed to its success.

One notable contribution comes from students at Redmond High School who are building between four and six shelters as part of the high school’s construction technology program. Four more shelters are being built by Heart of Oregon Corps’ YouthBuild Program.

To contribute to the project or sponsor a shelter, contact Oasis Village by reaching out to info@oasisvillageor.org for more information.