The City of Bend notified the unhoused people living on NE 2nd Street between Franklin and Greenwood avenues of a “camp clean up” happening next Tuesday, October 25.
“This is not ideal. Nobody wants to move people around,” said City of Bend Communication Director Anne Aurand. “We want better, more holistic solutions. We’re working towards that. This particular camp, in one spot, is something that’s become an area of concern.”
This will be the second time this year 2nd Street camps have been swept. This time, the city is citing 121 calls for public safety services between August 22 and September 22.
“Police calls, code enforcement calls. They’ve been averaging more than 40 a month,” said Aurand.
The campers say they’ll pack up, no problem.
“We’re going to move in an appropriate, calm, reasonable, decent manner with no trash, no confusion, no anything,” said Cowboy, a 2nd Street camper.
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One unhoused woman said she wished her neighbors would be cleaner and less rowdy.
“We have to look at ourselves first, and sometimes there are 2% of houseless folk, or people who live outside, who act a goddamn fool and they ruin it for the rest of everybody,” said River Wolf, another camper on 2nd Street.
The city has given notice of the clean up.
“We give two weeks notice to service providers that we’re working with to give them an opportunity to go help the people that are living there,” said Aurand. “We do a 10-day notice to the people that are living there.”
The campers confirmed they saw the notices put up by the city. They will get another notice 72 hours before they have to pack their gear and move on.
The city says it expects the campers to move before October 25, but that date is dependent on shelter space and weather. If shelter availability decreases or there is a cold spike, the camps will not be forced to pack up.
