FILE - Terri Holm drives down her street in Bend, Ore., on Dec., 5, 2024. Holm lives on a MUA-10 parcel, just outside of the Bend city limit. MUA zoned parcels are now permitted to rent an RV as a dwelling, with certain restrictions.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
Until last week, it was illegal to rent a recreational vehicle for housing in Deschutes County.
County commissioners lifted that prohibition from many properties in a unanimous vote May 7.
The change leverages a recently enacted state law. Supporters of the ordinance are hoping it will help Central Oregon deal with a housing affordability crisis. Last month, the median single-family home price in the Bend area reached a record high, topping $830,000.
Deschutes County Senior Planner Tanya Saltzman said the ordinance will provide more options for renters.
“My hope is that this does provide a slight pressure release valve for housing,” she said.
The ordinance took effect immediately, and the county is ready to receive applications from property owners seeking permits, Saltzman said.
The approval came a week after about 200 people were evicted from a section of the Deschutes National Forest south of Bend.
County officials have said this clearing was not a motivating factor for their RV rental ordinance, but many of the residents forced out of the forest were living in RVs.
Civil rights advocate Graham Pruss traveled from Santa Cruz, Calif., to Bend to observe the evictions that took place May 1. He is the executive director of the National Vehicle Residency Collective, an advocacy group for people who live in vehicles.
“You can see the housing crisis evident here,” he said.
People living in vehicles is not unique to Central Oregon. Pruss’ group works with people from Hawaii to Canada, he said. Pruss earned a PhD in anthropology from the University of Washington. His research focus is vehicle residency in North America.
“There are more and more people living in vehicles all across the country because of the housing crisis that we see in communities all throughout the U.S.,” he said.
All kinds of people choose to live in vehicles, according to Pruss, some by necessity as shelter after being displaced from housing, or as a transition out of homelessness. A chosen nomadic lifestyle is popular for remote workers and gig workers, or for seasonal workers who travel across the country for jobs.
Deschutes County’s ordinance came in response to changes in state law. Oregon Senate Bill 1013 passed in 2023, allowing rural property owners to rent out one RV per property. Crook County has not opted into the legislation, while Jefferson County is set to discuss the possibility of opting in, according to county staff.
Under state law, rural landowners are allowed to have either an accessory dwelling unit or rent an RV on their property, but not both, Saltzman said.
ADUs can be expensive and take a long time to permit and build. During last week’s board of commissioners meeting officials said that RV dwellings offer a lower-cost alternative.
The emergency ordinance would apply to approximately 7,500 properties. They must be 2- or 5-acre lots. Exclusive farm use areas or forest land are excluded. Rental RVs have to be 100 feet from the primary residence and be hooked up to utilities like water, power and sewer.
Deschutes County didn’t set any restrictions on the cost of rentals or include other tenant protections, Saltzman said.
“We as a county do not get in the business of regulating,” she said, when it comes to landlord-tenant agreements.
