Kathleen Leppert

When I listen to local people in positions of authority discuss “the homeless problem,” I can tell in an instant who has actually worked on the frontlines of houselessness serving the people and who works in their heated offices grandstanding.

In these bitter cold temperatures, our houseless community members are struggling to survive. Many, if not most, are folks who became houseless for no other reason than housing is too high for their incomes. Seniors, disabled, families with children, veterans of the US military and National Guard, and those caring for their disabled family members who could no longer afford the sky-high rents and found themselves living in campers, tow-behind trailers, vans, cars, and soon tents on the ground. Nearly every single person has had a medical crisis co-occur with houselessness.

Community members who were born and raised here and know of no other place to live when their friends, family, and medical care to care for chronic and debilitating health conditions are all here. This is their home. They are our most vulnerable houseless community members. They’ve been on waitlists for housing and an assist upward for years now while living without access to heat, running water, and basic sanitation can cause them to spiral downward as they are shunned and left to die without dignity.

We prioritize on lists those who are terminal. And if you’ve never had to work with folks, prioritizing who is most in need by how close to death they are, you have no clue.

The city, county, and U.S. Forest Service have now started the process of shutting down long-term parking and camping on public lands all over Central Oregon. Several hundred households are without a place to go.

There is nowhere near enough shelter capacity to handle the inflow we will be dealing with after these mass evictions.

The scale of this crisis demands a disaster-level response. We must urgently increase temporary shelters and pilot programs to create managed camps and settlement encampments. Managed camps that include tiny homes, cabins, and even pre-fabricated structures designed for rapid deployment. Cities and counties should be working hand-in-hand with state and federal agencies to designate areas on public lands where infrastructure like running water, sanitation, and electricity can be set up to provide immediate relief. Managed camps are not a perfect solution, but they provide stability and dignity for those who need it most.

In addition, we need to consider the creation of affordable trailer parks and cooperative housing developments for people living in RVs, campers, and tow-behind trailers. With basic amenities, these locations can offer a transitional pathway toward permanent housing, particularly for families and individuals who are already halfway there but need a stable, affordable place to land. These solutions are not luxuries — they are necessities in a humanitarian disaster of this scale. We have the tools and resources to make this happen, but we need the political will to treat this as the public emergency it is.

Instead of evicting our most vulnerable neighbors from public lands, we need to transform those spaces into places of refuge and recovery. This is not about enabling houselessness; it’s about preventing unnecessary deaths and giving people the opportunity to rebuild their lives. Without swift action, we are condemning them to further suffering and erasing their chance at a future.

We need to demand our government use our public lands to provide shelter for all of us. And we need to respond to this humanitarian disaster with humility and mercy.

Editor’s Note

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