The homeless community around Sisters will now have a warm place to stay during freezing winter months. The Sisters Cold Weather Shelter board is set to purchase a building near downtown.
“This building really will be encapsulating of what we believe to be a very thorough and comprehensive package for the housing needs here,” said Luis Blanchard, Sisters Cold Weather Shelter Board President.
Blanchard says this is the first time Sisters will have a permanent homeless shelter.
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“This may be the best location in the heart of Sisters, away from residential communities, away from where there might be some exposure, say, to children,” he said.
Blanchard says estimates suggest more than 100 individuals who are homeless are living in forest areas surrounding Sisters. The camps are less than a mile from the new shelter.
Previously, those living here would have had to travel several miles to either Redmond or Bend for a warm place to spend the night.
“We get a week of below freezing and these poor folks are out there,” he said. “We get extreme heat. We get smoke. To have this, I believe, is just one of the things that a town like ours can do.”
The building will also offer nutritional, hygienic and behavioral health services. The grant, which totals $1.46 million, will also allow the shelter to buy four apartment units in Sisters for those transitioning to Section 8 low-income housing.
The quest for a permanent shelter location in sisters is a battle Blanchard and other volunteers have been fighting for years. Despite the breakthrough, he believes the shelter is a long way from being a success and will require community collaboration.
“We need your help and we need the city’s cooperation at this point in time. Let’s hope and pray that we’ll have success. There are many entities out there that are doing things right.”
