As the city of Bend picks up enforcement of rules against camping in vehicles on city streets, leaders are banking on ongoing efforts to create more places for them to go that aren’t in the right-of-way.

Until then, it’s unclear where the people and their vehicles will go next.

Jerry Gosnell, who has lived for a year on NE Watt Way in east Bend, the city’s largest group of vehicle campers, said Monday he’s been scouting nearby streets and areas for a place to move his trailer.

“It’s all I’ve got,” he said. “It provides me everything. I’ve got heat. I’ve got food.”

Gosnell has been homeless in Bend for six years. He hasn’t been able to get on Social Security and has been dealing with effects of a stroke he had four years ago.

Last summer he moved to Watt Way from Hunnell Road, where a congregation of vehicle campers parked until the city cleared the area to address human health and safety risks and make way for construction projects.

Gosnell, two others on Watt Way and a handful of others in the Bend Central District were given notices to move earlier this month. The trailer beside Gosnell’s, which had also been parked there for a year, was gone by Monday. Gosnell and another resident were given more time to move due to disability law.

Tightening camping code

So far, all vehicles have moved voluntarily; none has been towed, according to David Abbas, director of the city’s transportation and mobility department. The notices came after months of work by health and safety staff in his department, who informed campers about city codes and available services.

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The campers violated a city code prohibiting parking in one place for more than three business days, and a city code against camping, passed in 2022, that prohibits camping in public places for more than 24 hours, near shelters or near the river and in certain areas based on density.

At its next meeting, the Bend City Council will consider tightening its rules for vehicle camping to align with rules for tent camping.

Councilor Megan Perkins said she plans to vote for the change.

“I absolutely believe we need to prioritize our homeless population who have no other place to go,” she said. “But we also have a lot of people that have been living in that neighborhood, and have been living in low income apartments in that neighborhood, who deserve a safe place to live themselves. We have to balance both of those things.”

Vehicle camping likely to continue

The city’s public works department has received 29 complaints about people camping in vehicles on the street on Watt Way since January, according to Jacob Larsen, a spokesperson for the city. That does not include complaints to the Bend Police Department, he said.

Enforcement of the camping code is prioritized based on risks to human health and safety. The code calls for dispersing large camps to reduce impacts on neighborhoods and businesses, said Jason Gault, health and safety officer with the city.

Perkins said staff members have done a good job identifying risky camps and connecting unhoused people with resources.

But she acknowledged that because there simply aren’t enough outdoor shelters in Bend to accommodate all the vehicle dwellings, vehicle camping in the right-of-way will likely continue.

The City Council and Deschutes County Commission are scheduled to meet Sept. 5 to discuss, among other items, plans for an outdoor managed camp and solutions to large unsanctioned encampments on public lands outside the city.

Safe parking sites successful, but haven’t expanded

Of the city’s 523 shelter beds, 16 are in the form of safe parking spaces for vehicles. They’re part of the city’s Safe Parking Program, which allows religious organizations, nonprofits, businesses and others to provide a place for unhoused people to park their vehicles, while a nonprofit service provider runs case management and provides bathrooms and sanitation.

The parking program, created in 2021, has been “really successful,” helping 13 households transition out of homelessness into permanent housing in the last year, said Brook O’Keefe, shelter coordinator with the city of Bend.

Bend’s safe parking program has 12 total spaces among four church parking lots. Because the city’s program limits their size and structure, the sites operate quietly with few complaints, according to Perkins.

Safe parking is considered a “high-barrier” shelter. Guests must pass a background check and agree to basic rules. The parking spaces are meant to provide a secure location while people seek more permanent housing, said Stacey Witte, executive director of REACH, nonprofit that runs safe parking sites in NorthWest Crossing, the Bend Central District and in east Bend. The nonprofit also provides outreach and services to the homeless community.

Across Bend, the spaces are almost always at full capacity.

Earlier this year, REACH staff made contact with Kenneth Houser, who was living in his RV on Watt Way with his two children. The right-of-way was the family’s home for a year after rent at their apartment became too expensive to afford.

He applied for safe parking and was bumped up the waitlist because of his two kids. He said he wanted to find somewhere safe for them.

“My goal wasn’t me living alongside the road all the time,” he said. “I wanted to get stable and get back on my feet.”

Safe parking has been his home for six months.

“It’s real peaceful and quiet. No one bothers you. It’s a really great thing,” he said.

On Wednesday he met with an RV park manager in Deschutes River Woods, where he hopes to move into an open spot. It was a challenge to find an RV park that accepts models more than 20 years old. His is a 1999.

Several unhoused people have transitioned to stable housing through a safe parking site run by nonprofit Central Oregon Villages at Bend Church-United Methodist on Bond Street near downtown. Instead of vehicles, the parking lot hosts two white pallet shelters, which can be easily moved with a forklift, said Jim Porter, president of the nonprofit’s board.

Chris Walter, 69, has called one of the 150-square-foot dwellings his home for nearly a year. He lived on the streets and in shelters in Bend for decades after he was injured by a drunken driver as a young adult, he said.

He works at a convenience store in west Bend, but hasn’t been able to secure low income housing.

In part because of the affordable housing shortage, some participants haven’t moved out of REACH’s safe parking as quickly as anticipated, Witte said. There’s currently a waitlist of about 30 people for REACH parking spaces.

And efforts to increase safe parking sites haven’t been as successful as the program itself. Witte has encouraged participating churches to spread the word about safe parking, while the city hosted an informational session in March and mailed letters to churches to try to spur interest.

No parking sites have been added since then.

“We’re nowhere near the amount of spaces we need,” Witte said.

A legislative change

Rick Russell is the executive director of Mountain View Community Development, which runs a parking program with 28 spaces in Redmond. A mix of shelter types are needed to address homelessness, he said. But he believes safe parking could play a larger role in addressing homelessness not only within cities, but outside of town at China Hat and Juniper Ridge, where many people are living in vehicles.

One of the “unintended consequences” of the Bend and Redmond camping codes is that it moved people living in vehicles to the perimeters of the cities, he said.

Russell is interested in operating parking sites in Bend. The ideal number of safe parking spaces is “at least 50, and probably double that,” he said.

Safe parking generally costs less to run than other forms of shelter. Russell’s group received $200,000 from Deschutes County earlier this year, which will allow the Redmond sites to run through 2025.

But funding is still a challenge. Thus far, safe parking programs have been largely blocked from receiving state homelessness funding for shelter operations. Vehicles owned by unhoused people do not qualify as shelters under Gov. Tina Kotek’s 2023 executive order and legislative packages, which have provided millions for homelessness in Central Oregon.

“It’s really frustrating,” Russell said. “It’s a very effective program, but they’re using a very narrow definition of what constitutes shelter.”

Tammy Baney, executive director of Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, said funding eligibility for safe parking is on the agenda for a committee convened by the governor’s office to address gaps in shelter funding during the 2025 legislative session.

Perkins said also she plans to advocate for a legislative change — and help from the community to add safe parking.

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