Additional tiny homes and safe-parking programs will be created in Central Oregon after the Coordinated Houseless Response Office approved four projects at its Thursday meeting.

These projects will allow additional options for homeless people — either a place to live or a safe place to park if they are living out of their vehicles. The office, comprised of members from Deschutes County, Sisters, Redmond, Bend and La Pine, was created to help local organizations combat homelessness.

Chris Ogren, houseless response analyst for the response office, was pleased the office received applications that are now moving forward. After finalizing proposals, project creators can now enter an agreement with a property owner to develop a site for the project. Over $2 million from a one-time 2023 governmental executive order was allocated to the response office for projects to reduce homelessness.

“I think that folks experiencing homelessness in Central Oregon need more resources, and the community needs to be able to offer more resources if we’re gonna be able to solve this problem,” said Ogren. “I’m happy to see that providers are willing to work with local governments to offer more solutions than we currently have.”

Safe-parking programs

The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council accepted applications from March 12 through April 12. The intergovernmental review team, which scored applications and recommended them to the office, was comprised of five members from COIC, the city of Bend, city of Redmond, Homeless Leadership Coalition and Deschutes County.

Oasis Village put forward a project to add 10 tiny homes in Redmond. Central Oregon Villages applied to create a safe-parking program in Bend and a tiny homes village south of Bend. Mountainview Community Development, which was recently allocated $200,000 for a safe-parking program in Redmond, applied for an expansion of that same program in either Bend or Redmond.

All four projects were approved to move forward. Each project will be run through local entities, such as property owners, instead of the coordinated response office. The projects are set to use private property, Deschutes County property or city of Bend property.

Gales Brothers LLC applied to develop a safe-parking program east of Bend. Home More Network put forward a safe-parking program in La Pine, as well as a managed camp in Juniper Ridge.

None of the three was approved to move forward. There were lingering questions, ranging from zoning concerns to staffing levels.

“Those projects needed a little bit more information or more time to fully bake their concept before the review team felt comfortable moving it forward,” said Ogren. “It’s not intended to be a ‘no’. It’s intended to be a ‘not yet.’”

Redmond’s Bethlehem Inn rebranded itself recently as a transitional shelter. Central Oregon Villages and Oasis Village both opened within the last year.

Read more: Deschutes County extends $200K in funding to Redmond Safe Parking Program

“We desperately need something. We have a nightmare, and we have got to bring more capacity to our region,” Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair said during the meeting.