Deschutes County commissioners at odds on how to deal with homelessness

Since the Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling in late June, which ruled that cities are now able to ban camping or sleeping in public spaces, local governments have been navigating how to handle this new power. For years, Deschutes County has battled with the Oregon Department of State Lands on a pending land swap between county-owned lands and the state. In 2022, the state required that the county clear homeless encampments on county property before making any deals. Now, as Clayton Franke from the Bend Bulletin reports, Deschutes County commissioners are in disagreement about how to address homelessness and these encampments after the Supreme Court ruling. Franke joins to share more.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. In late June, the Supreme Court ruled in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case that cities across the country can ban camping or sleeping in public places. But with more leeway comes more questions. In Deschutes County, commissioners are debating right now how to deal with encampments in three different areas. Clayton Franke has been covering this issue for the Bend Bulletin and he joins us now with the details. Clayton, welcome to the show.

Clayton Franke: Thanks for having me, Dave.

Miller: Can you remind us first just briefly what the Supreme Court said in its ruling in this Grants Pass case at the beginning of the summer?

Franke: Yeah, the ruling overturned a previous decision from 2022 from a lower court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling was based on a case from homeless residents of Grant’s Pass who said that without an alternative place to go, without a home to go to, city ordinances that criminalized or imposed fines for sleeping in public places, parks and streets were cruel and unusual punishment, because it criminalized their status as a person without any alternative shelter to go to.

The Supreme Court, in the June decision, basically flipped that and said the Eighth Amendment – what the cruel and unusual punishment clause is from – focuses on the kinds of punishments that governments can impose, but not specific things like camping in public places.

Miller: What are the numbers like in Deschutes County right now in terms of homelessness?

Franke: Based on the most recent Point in Time Count – a one-day survey in January conducted by service providers – there’s about 1,800 people who are homeless in Deschutes County. I think it’s important to realize that not all of those people are living unsheltered and within encampments. According to that count, only 1,200 were living unsheltered, which is more than half. So that’s a pretty significant amount. But that’s a number that increased overall by about 10% from last year, from 2023, although it declined in [the] larger cities of Central Oregon, Bend and Redmond.

Miller: Where is unsanctioned camping in the county concentrated right now?

Franke: Deschutes County has three major areas where there are large encampments.  One is southeast of Bend on federal land where the county doesn’t have jurisdiction over that land to apply any kind of camping code. Where it does [have jurisdiction] is at an encampment on the north edge of Bend where there’s hundreds of acres of undeveloped county and city land outside the city limits of Bend. There’s [an] estimated few hundred people camping there. There’s also some unsanctioned camping east of the city of Redmond on undeveloped land outside of the city limits.

Miller: So let’s turn to some of the disagreements among commissioners right now. First of all, what is Commissioner Tony DeBone pushing for?

Franke: Tony Debone has been pushing for the commission to sort of take action to lean into the Supreme Court’s decision. Last year, the county crafted a code that basically bans camping on county lands. So he’s hoping that the county can lean into that and set up an area where people who are living in the unsanctioned areas on county land can go. He’s hoping that can happen sooner rather than later, in the next couple of months, where the county can go ahead and enforce the code and set up another place to go.

Miller: What about Commissioner Phil Chang?

Franke: Phil Chang has said that even though the Supreme Court has sort of flipped this decision about camping bans, he doesn’t believe that should change the county’s approach to homelessness at all. Basically, he said that the way to get people out of homelessness is with solutions, with shelters, with services. Enforcing the camping code now, without adequate shelter beds or alternative transitional shelters for people to go to, would effectively be shuffling people around between unsanctioned camps. So even though the county has that authority, he’s a little bit less willing to go ahead and enforce the code right away.

Miller: What kind of political pressure are these commissioners facing? I’m curious what you’ve heard that they’re hearing from constituents?

Franke: I think there is a range of pressure and opinions of constituents in Deschutes County. I think there are quite a few people who live near these unsanctioned camps. These camps have had people camping there for a few years now. People are concerned about fire risk on public lands in places where there is fuel, like trees around, and wildfires can start. People have been coming to the meetings to advocate and express some concerns and really urging commissioners to take immediate action and find some solution for some of the unmanaged camping.

But I think there are also people, homeless advocates and others, who have said let’s not make any rushed or immediate decisions after the Supreme Court case, and let’s take our time a little bit and deal with this in the best way that we can.

Miller: We just have about a minute and a half left. But in the background here is this ongoing issue of a potential land swap between the county and the state. What would that entail?

Franke: This has been going back a couple of decades that this deal has been in the works. But the county is hoping to acquire some state-owned lands near the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in exchange for county lands that are east of the city of Redmond

where an industrial park could be developed on the state lands there.

Miller: And, just briefly, how much money is the county putting towards all these efforts?

Franke: They have about $1.5 million dollars allocated to manage camps, whether that’s transitional shelters or safe parking areas. That money hasn’t been spent yet and there’s several different proposals in the works right now for different solutions. At the end of the day, there aren’t going to be enough solutions from that funding to accommodate everyone that’s living on public lands within the county right now.

Miller: Clayton, thanks very much.

Franke: Thanks, Dave.

Miller: Clayton Franke is a reporter at the Bend Bulletin.

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