Construction is underway on a new 10-unit village in Bend for homeless people in need of temporary shelter. St. Vincent de Paul in Bend will oversee the village, which is being built on an empty lot behind its food bank on Third Street. Each unit in the village will be about 100 square feet, enough room for a bed, small table and chair.

The village, called St Vincent’s Place, will also feature a resource center and a community room with three bathrooms, two showers, a laundry room and kitchen and dining area.

The $550,000 village is expected to open to residents in the spring, said Gary Hewitt, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul in Bend. The nonprofit social service organization has raised all but $100,000 to fully fund the project.

Each resident can stay up to 24 months. The goal is for them to use their time at the village to find permanent housing, Hewitt said.

“I’m calling it a structured program,” Hewitt said. “People are going to live with rules, and goals and they are going to have a volunteer coach assigned to them.”

Hewitt said he sees the village as a model for other service organizations working to house people across Central Oregon.

The project is similar to the Central Oregon Veterans Village being constructed on property north of Bend.

Hewitt hopes to see more villages pop up, especially as the Bend City Council continues to look for a permanent homeless shelter.

“If this model works, I think it could be duplicated,” Hewitt said. “Some people are scared about the village concept when they hear about it, but if we have maybe eight to 10 programs like what we have scattered throughout the community, nobody is going to notice we are in their neighborhood.”

The biggest obstacle for the villages is finding a location, said James Cook, a homeless welfare advocate in Redmond who serves on the board for Central Oregon Villages, a nonprofit organization working to create organized and managed properties for those experiencing homelessness.

Properties are expensive and people are concerned about something new in their neighborhoods, Cook said.

Cook tries to remind concerned citizens that the villages are organized and managed by social service workers.

“These are not camps. They are tiny villages,” Cook said. “One of the big advantages of that is it helps build community and helps people transition into a more structured lifestyle.”

At St Vincent’s Place, Hewitt said, each resident will be supported during the entire stay.

Hewitt’s organization hopes to raise funds to match what is in a resident’s savings account, which will help secure deposits and other costs for permanent housing.

“We will try to help people move through whatever is holding them back,” Hewitt said.

Residents will have help meeting their needs, whether that is helping with mental health and addiction issues or obtaining valid identification.

“We are going to have high expectations, but we will also be encouraging and helpful to people to meet these goals,” Hewitt said.

Overall, the goal will be to get people into stable housing.

“Placement is going to be the key,” Hewitt said. “If we can’t place people into housing, then it’s all for naught and it failed.”