If Michael May had one request of the city of Bend, it would be to let him stay where he camps on NE Second Street.
May has lived in a tent there for the past six months. He came to Central Oregon to help a friend move, but then his friend abandoned him in Bend with no affordable way to get home, he said.
If forced to move from Second Street, May has no idea where he would go.
“This is like home,” he said.
May is one of dozens of homeless campers who may be required to move if the city decides to clear the area along Second Street roughly between NE Emerson and Greenwood avenues. This week, the city is doing a public safety assessment for the area around Second Street, which will determine whether there are enough safety concerns to justify clearing camps out of the city’s right of way, according to City Manager Eric King.
The assessment will examine the number of service calls the police department receives, as well as the seriousness of crimes of violence being reported to or witnessed by police, according to the city’s right of way policy. The policy also considers trash accumulation, public health issues, like human waste, and other factors.
The goal of this approach is to rely less on anecdotes and more on data, King said.
“We want to look at this more holistically,” King said.
For weeks, the city has received complaints about safety and trash accumulation around the homeless camps in the area, said city Councilor Megan Perkins. Since July, the city has spent $6,422 on homeless camp cleanups, much of which has been around Second Street, according to the city.
“What I’m seeing is that this is generally an unsafe situation for everybody that’s in that area, from employees, to businesses to obviously the campers themselves,” Perkins said.
Chris Starling, who owns Arbor Mortgage Group on Greenwood Avenue, said he has spent upwards of $15,000 on cleaning up, repairing damages or installing security systems in response to the growing homeless population around his business over the past three years.
Starling said he has had electrical boxes broken into, has had to build fencing around his air conditioning equipment because people were sheltering inside of it, and had to spend money to clean up garbage left around his property. He said he also finds himself needing to call police to remove people from his property.
The larger presence of homeless people in the area affects how potential customers perceive his business, as well as make his employees feel unsafe, he said.
“It’s just hurting our district down here,” Starling said.
But moving people has already proven complicated in this area.
The last time a public safety assessment like this was done was in June, when the city cleared homeless campers off of the public right of way on Emerson Avenue, which is adjacent to Second Street.
Last week, the city posted roughly 20 notices at campsites that were deemed to be blocking the sidewalk, too far into the roadway or otherwise blocking visibility near the intersection.
About six campsites were removed, and the remaining people voluntarily moved, according to Jason Gault, a code enforcement officer for the city.
But in less than a weekend, many of the campers simply moved across the street to camp near the Campfire Hotel, said Daniel Elder, the hotel’s general manager.
Six months ago, less than 10 people camped near the hotel in a three-block radius, Elder said. Now, it’s closer to 60 people. Just over the weekend, the number of tents on the north side of the building went from roughly seven to 25, he said.
“Moving the camp in and of itself is not the solution,” Elder said. “It just increases anxiety for these people and moving to another place that’s not safe.
“I don’t think it’s made anything safer,” Elder continued. “If anything, it’s made things significantly more dangerous.”
Since the city’s actions, Elder said his staff has had to handle more conflicts related to homeless people coming onto the property, and that guests have reported feeling unsafe because of the amount of loud activities happening around them.
A few months ago, Elder said his hotel had to clear 15 shopping carts filled with garbage, human feces, and needles.
Elder said he is frustrated with the situation, but also recognizes there are no easy answers.
“I think the hope is to figure out how to offer beds for people on the streets, (and) that people on the streets utilize these programs and can get back on their feet,” Elder said.
When asked why it was worth it to consider moving camps when previous experiences show people just move unsanctioned camps to another place in the city, Perkins said she wishes she had a good answer or a solution.
“This is why I don’t sleep at night,” Perkins said.
But Perkins also added that if the area is not safe for people in and around the camps, “we have to do something.”
Perkins said that her hope was the city could wait until the new Division Street shelter opened before the city would do anything.
“We are in this situation because we do not have enough shelter space in our community,” Perkins said. “We are trying to work as fast as we can to provide more shelter for people, but in the meantime we are constantly struggling with kicking the can down the road.”
(11) comments
I saw a still picture in the newspaper and I deduced the people in it were listless... [rolleyes]
We never had this homeless problem until the Bend City Council became filled with progressives who believe lies, coddle victims, and don't hold anyone to any kind of standard. May needs to get off public property, quit trashing tax-paying citizens property, and get a job.
Second Street has become Soweto, but with more filth, crime and overall degradation amongst its inhabitants. There really is a simple solution to all of this: A realistic amount of transitional housing, contingent upon job placement, mental health and substance abuse counseling/ongoing screening. Then a one-way shuttle to Portland for the rest, like this poor guy who can't seem to find $50 bucks for a bus ride home, despite Burger King offering $500 sign on bonuses and almost $20/hr wages. Stop the coddling, it's not doing the unhoused any favors and is in fact just enslaving them to a life of substance abuse and helplessness.
EXACTLY!! Well said and so true!
'...but then his friend abandoned him in Bend with no affordable way to get home, he said.'
Does this qualify as homeless? He self reports a home somewhere else.
Looks like Bend could be headed in the same direction as San Fran and Seattle.
Overrun with homeless camps.
If the city allows the camps, then word gets out and more homeless arrive. San Fran and Seattle found this out the hard way and are now buried in camps.
Have you been to Portland lately? It is horrible with all the trash, graffiti and homeless camps. Now Portland wants to add a tax so they can give the homeless a monthly $700 debit card. We got fed up with Portland after we had some bum sleeping on our front porch in front of out door and much vandalism to our vehicles and our neighbors were robbed at gun point while walking back from a restaurant 3 blocks away, moved 25 miles west
"May has lived in a tent there for the past six months. He came to Central Oregon to help a friend move, but then his friend abandoned him in Bend with no affordable way to get home, he said." EASY solution, buy him a ticket to where he came from!!
The Bend city council should think twice before making these zoning changes! It is how San Francisco Creates More Homeless While Championing Equality, watch this to the end https://youtu.be/SV3IoAQnaLg
Look at the picture in this article. They mostly look like young men standing around doing nothing. It's past time for a little tough love with these folks starting with Michael May who is quoted in this article. He is nothing but a con man. Councilor Perkins is part of the problem.
Mays' story is a bit strange, which increases my suspicion the story is not true. A couple of months ago a homeless person was asking me for a beer. I enticed him to talk to me. After a while, he finally spoke enough to contradict himself and I pointed it out. I also see the widespread degradation they cause with garbage, graffiti, feces, needles and minor destruction. If this guy came here to help "a friend" move, what was he doing before? Was he homeless and jobless as well? If he has friends, can't he move in to get the address, get one of the many, low qualification jobs available and get a place on his own shortly thereafter? What is his reasoning for being able bodied, but not able to work? If he's been living here, and presumably begging, what does he consider affordable transportation? Bus tickets don't cost that much and surely he has other family and friends, or has he burned every bridge available to him?
The inability to deal with the homeless may be exacerbated by Martin v Boise that housing is a right and therefore must be provided by the government. That ruling seems to be based on multiple incorrect beliefs and essentially gives one class of citizens rights the rest of us don't have and the ability to get away with behaviors the rest of us can't. This doesn't really solve anything.
Lets give Perkins the benefit of the doubt that she's genuinely well intentioned. Her emotion seems to be taking hold of her mind and clouding her ability to think rationally. This is good for children, but not for the adults who have been living in a totally different world than she is used to or can comprehend based on what I have heard her say thus far. It's not even clear she understands what a diverse group the homeless are, the numerous ways in which people become homeless and that the chronically homeless will run her around. They are often in dog eat dog situations, and their thinking is similarly pathological. You can't just simply give them a hug and a house and expect everything to be hunky dory.
“May has lived in a tent there for the past six months. He came to Central Oregon to help a friend move, but then his friend abandoned him in Bend with no affordable way to get home, he said.”
This guy has been hanging around here for six months and can’t find a way to earn enough money to get back to where he came from? With Help Wanted signs everywhere?
Somehow I just don’t believe his story.
The question is: What is the City Council doing to reduce homelessness? They have been elected by the taxpayers to take on the responsibility of finding solutions to local government problems. So what positive ideas have they proposed that will begin to reduce homelessness in Bend?
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