A small, gated community filled with tiny homes, a kitchen facility, shower and restrooms called Oasis Village is a proposed homeless camp in the works in Redmond.
Residents will be able to stay there from 6 months to two years, if they follow the rules and the programs designed to get them into stable housing.
“Missed one paycheck and that is all it took,” said David Ybara about becoming homeless. “To build up enough to get into a place, hell you need three thousand, thirty-five hundred just to get into a place.”
Ybara has been living on the outskirts of East Redmond for five years.
He’s one of roughly 150 homeless living in the area.
Ybara likes the idea of Oasis Village. a small, gated community for the unhoused.
“I’d take it up,” he said. “It would be nice just to be able to come home and feel more at ease when you come home.”
The proposed village would be on a 1-and-a-half-acre parcel land, expecting to cost around $400,000.
The city is expected to fund some, the rest of the money will need to be raised.
“We felt the most critical thing that was needed to help individuals in camps was a bridge, a way out of these camps and that was the genesis behind the idea of Oasis village,” said Chair of Oasis Village Bob Bohac.
Bohac says they are hoping to build around 10 tiny homes and eventually expand to around 30 tiny homes.
“The tiny bedroom will be 8×12 to begin with, we are hoping to have some 8×16’s that we could have small families in,” Bohac said. “We expect to start with approximately 10, 8×12 and the expansion will depend on how many people are determined on how many people are applying to the village and financially how much money is available.”
The plan is similar to the Veteran’s Village currently under construction in Bend.
▶️ Building blitz puts Veterans Village project back on track
Bohac says several homeless outreach programs would be involved in helping those staying.
“Those types of services are going to be absolutely essential, and people are expected to use those, so that within 6 months, a year, two years at the most, they will be able to transition to more permanent housing situations,” Bohac added.
Those evaluated and asked to stay at the village must make progress on individual
goals, such as drug and alcohol problems, finding work, and stable housing.
“For some people it might deter them a little bit, but if they want to get their life back together that is what we got to do, you know. That’s what they got to do, myself, that is what I have to do.”
Once land is acquired and funding started, Bohac hopes the village would be completed within a year.
